2 Halo ME:Age of Revelation
by Evident Disaster
Summary: 2554 the age of new adventures and old friends, revelation begins... We're back! I am not rewritting today, please read through later! NEW UPDATE CH31, the return of an old hero, and the end of a age of peace, it is all in the plan... read on to the end.
1. Prologue part 1

HALO/Mass Effect

Thank you for the views, and now I have returned with a new idea.

There will be sweeping changes to the whole series and I will make sure things are now in sync, you should also note that I will be removing the Ghosts of Onyx characters due to some continuity issues and ETC.

Prologue

-UPDATE-

**CODEX: Nova Stratus**

Nova Stratus was a cluster of stars inside of an ion nebula, the ionisation of the stars had caused a great deal of trouble for navigation throughout the sector. When the first colonists who had landed over fifty years ago suffered the same problems, there had been no physical effects of the ionisation affecting the population.

The colonies had each a variety of unique environments which has provided unique functions for each colony:

Valence:

"_The pristine waters, the open forests, boundless and majestic, it's a Valhalla in its own right, and I'm proud and honoured to live on such a gifted world filled with promise, the day this paradise ends is the day the end comes. To those who are here and who are yet to come, enjoy it while it lasts… because it might be your last day."_

_-_Jon Yeoman- Beauty seen in the Heart- 2501 first colonists

Has been seen as a world prosperous and ever-growing, and has its function throughout the sector to provide many of the other colonies with necessary agriculture and produce. The planet has a vast variety of fauna and flora, the planet is covered mostly forests and mountains, certain open areas and grasslands. Most colonists living on Valence have grown to adapt hunting as a trade and produce excellent marksman and trackers.

Hunting is the most traditional occupation; the teaching of hunting and tracking are passed down generations and taught to other children, from the youngest of age children learn to catch small game and learn how to survive in their environment, though it is a hazard the children learn quickly and are usually accompanied by an experienced member of family or friend.

There are other occupations on Valence because of its high agricultural occupation.

Those that remain are:

Militia: Scouting and reconnaissance, this includes regular military training, 3 years of academy necessary to join, age requirement is 14-15.

Navy: Militia Naval personnel, a position within the Navy 2-4 year academy then on-hands experience on naval vessels for 2 years, ages from 14-16.

Trader: Trade in the Nova Stratus sector is usually provided by the trade companies of Valence,

Pyros; located in the most dense concentrations of the nebula, has been the source of industrial production and development, they also provide much of the local militia forces that patrol the sector. The planet's surface is rocky and large amounts of volcanic activity, the planet is considered volatile with high noxious fume fields and lava pools with certain amount of seismic activity. The first colonists had managed to construct and erect large amounts of power plants and mining facilities, the planet also has a gravitational pull three times more than earth, altering the physical structure of the humans living on the planet, most are stronger and faster and are capable above all else, though many live within the cities, gravity plating was produced to help with the higher gravity.

Anomia; is referred to as the 'heart and soul' of Nova Stratus, it was the first colony founded and terra formed, Anomia to this day provides an assortment of different values, technological, scientific, and agricultural and industrial, Anomia has been also the core of government. The world of Anomia provides the main shipyards and source of advancement in technology.

Viscos strider:

"_If hell itself ever froze over, it would be Viscos strider; it is beyond my belief that it is an actual death world, capable of snap freezing you to death in a matter of seconds, even with suits and vehicles. It wouldn't matter, there is only one way to survive, crawling into the biggest and hottest heat vents on the face of this frozen hell hole and see how well you fare, this is a life that is probably short lived..."_

-William Levi Theamman- Vent coral harvester- 2505 first colonists

The most famously known world is Viscos strider, a frozen world with temperatures from 45.C in summer to -450.C in winter and only has a three mixture season only a quarter of a year; the temperatures are supposedly to have been caused by the planets orbit around its post-nova star.

The post nova star erupted with enough force to destroy the other 4 planets that had once orbited 125,250,000 years ago. The destruction caused the birth of a debris field thick enough to block out sunlight from one side of the system, Viscos striders orbit is the same as earth, for more than half of the year the sun is blocked out of view.

The people who live on Viscos strider have had a high reputation for their skills in survival in freezing temperatures and hazardous environments, the people who live there survive with vent harvesting. Vent harvesting is a dangerous occupation; it requires the individual to survive the volcanic vents in open fields, once there the person has to reach into the 39-49.C pockets and retrieve mildew plants that grow, the plants themselves are high in nutrients and vitamins, with additional heat resources, this occupation is the only foremost well-paying and hazardous.

The other field occupations include:

Vent construction (volcanic)

Vent fuming

Vent marker

MHS production (mobile harvester suit)

Mill processing planter

Monolith marker- A person locates a large crystallised deposit of Mildew and heat lime

Pyre crawler hunting- As the world of Viscos's population grew; a native species that lived on the planet did as well, a Pyre crawler is a large multi-pedal insect that shares a similarity with the Pyre's they are only located in the most dense concentrations of Volcanic activity.

Fauna

PYRE: 'Pyre people' called by the people are arachnid like beings which inhabit the dense caverns of the planets vents, their unique humanoid like frames glow within the darkness of the vents and caverns, they are rarely seen outside of their territory and tend to travel outside only when necessary.

They come to feed on the mildew of large vents and attack anything that approaches their homes. They are bipedal and have a humanoid like form, with a hard out layer of their shell covers most of their body comprised of a natural carbon shell with the similar protein compounds.

There are over nine other colonies within the Nova Stratus sector, each are with similar functions and purposes, but none are more successful than these core worlds.

Nova Stratus is an independent democracy as well as socialistic government, specifically modelled with the peoples interests in mind. The existence of the Independent colonies were to form a self-sustainable and determined government that did not by their own doctrine control them, thus the UNSC has never been alerted to the existence of the Independent Colonies.

The Colonies of Nova Stratus prospered for decades, though civil conflict was a concern the colonies have never had to resort to taking action, though what was to come was far worse.

UNSC military date 2550 December 25th

The war had ended for the most of Humanity, though it was still a struggle for survival, the Covenant had nearly exhausted the UNSC to its limits. The war had devastated most of the outer colonies and inner, but in the depth of space a small fragment of humanity still remained.

The Colonies of Nova Stratus forgotten in the war survived but just barely, only a few months before the treaty that signed the end of the Covenant war. A Covenant forces arrived in system, the colonists had planned if Covenant came the colonists would defend with their lives; though it came at a price, a price too high.

Colony of Anomia, Nova Stratus

Standard time: 12:35pm

As the colonial fleet detected the incoming Covenant forces an E-band communications went out through to all active com satellites to neighbouring star systems, activation of Cole Protocol initiated, Colonial HIGHCOM to erase any of the other colonies existence and then execute as many people.

/E-Protocol CODE: OMEGA/ Processing

The plan had only half fulfilled, the civilians who were in the north of densely populated zones desperately tried to escape. While in the cities themselves the people went into the shelters as planned or fled via orbital relay or ship, some did manage to escape the battle for Anomia while others weren't as capable.

The Covenant cruisers met head on with the Anomia colonial fleet forces and orbital MAC guns, the Covenant possessed 9 CCS cruisers, 1 super cruiser, 5 assault cruisers, 6 frigates, 4 destroyers. The colonist's fleet was consisted of 10 cruisers, 24 frigates, 11 destroyers, 10 light cruisers, 5 carriers and 9 Super MAC Platforms.

/ Anomia Defence Fleet/ Battle Group Alpha / 13:35pm standard

Aboard the _Few and None _–Halcyon class cruiser

As the UCAF fleet took up final preparations as the Covenant forces made their way in system, to the people's dismay the worst case scenario had occurred, now with only hours left, it either meant survival or death of their world.

Captain Jeremy Vance watched as the Covenant force began a steady approach to Anomia's kill zone, Jeremy was concerned, the chances of a Covenant battle group discovering the Nova Stratus cluster was astronomical. How come they arrive now after annihilating the outer colonies was a mystery, but it was no longer to think of what was happening.

The atmosphere was tense, most of the crew had never gone up against Covenant and battle reports over the years on what had occurred in the outer colonies hadn't reassured them. Or to their knowledge of previous engagements in their borders that were hidden by the ONI and ISB.

Ensign Carol was twiddling around with the com lines waiting for orders, while the helmsmen Robert looked ready to turn the ship on a dime, it was the same with the rest of his crew, and unease stifled the air.

The sudden com chatter from fleet command ordered to form a defensive line against the Covenant approach. Jeremy ordered. "Form up with the fleet, we'll have to go head to head with them, helm bring us about, full speed."

The _Few and None_ quickly linked with the fleet at the primary defence point; there the fleet formed a defence formation around the Super MACs, a first line of frigates held the front, while the cruisers and the carriers held the rear.

The plan was simple hold Covenant forces for reinforcements from Valence or Shanxi to arrive, but with recent ion storms in the region it would be a while before they know. The Covenant forces may have also been within their region, the UCAF HIGHCOM wasn't too sure on what was happening on the other colonies.

The odds for Anomia was beyond low, there was little chance the colony would survive if more Covenant came, but they had to do what they could, because it was necessary. All the time they had was necessary, as each second could account for the billions of their world's inhabitants.

Jeremy knew the battle group wouldn't last long, the fleet was made of recently commissioned vessels, and the outcome of these wining a fight against Covenant was going to be costly. Still if the numbers were on their side they may win, but that outcome was still low.

The UCAF fleet began to charge their MACs, and the Covenant fleet now within range began to charge their plasma torpedoes.

Jeremy took decisive action. "Fire when the MAC charges, and then launch Archers from 1-4, we'll only have a few shots but make each count."

The MACs from the fleet went away at speeds of 40% speed of light; the Covenant at the same time fired their volley of plasma torpedoes. The two destructive munitions passed each other in the middle of the void and made their way to each side.

The MACs made contact with the Covenant fleet, and the plasma torpedoes struck the UCAF fleet, the bright illuminations of detonating armaments and debris quickly filled the space.

The Covenant took a majority of damage but it wasn't enough to slow their progress, though the same couldn't be said for the fleet, the fleet took moderate damage in the first exchange, the cruisers had been scorched but the frigates were pummelled.

The frigates took the brunt of the damage except those that had been better prepared, a few recently adapted interceptor missiles managed to clear the plasma torpedoes and saved the ships. But in total the fleet sustained casualties almost immediately.

Jeremy watched as the plasma torpedoes tore into front line frigates while the rear took scorches_, _the ship_ was_ struck a hand full of times on the outer hull but nothing enough to start venting the atmosphere.

UCAF quickly regrouped and spread the fleet out, recharging their second volley and then returned fire once more, this time the MACs were concentrated on individual vessels.

The second volley hit much harder than the last, it destroyed three of the Covenant frigates and destroyers along with four CCS cruisers, the rest scattered, then it was their turn to fire, the Covenant launched another salvo of plasma torpedoes, it struck with brutal efficiency.

Jeremy ordered to hard port, but the torpedoes made contact throwing the crew off their feet, as it burnt through the super structure of the vessel, plasma fire was being subdued, but it hadn't been enough. "Vent atmosphere, and then put us on a course for the final defensive line, the MAC platforms need to be defended."

The _Few and None_ vented for a few minutes and limped her way to the final Defensive lines, during that time, Covenant began to deploy their main assault force, hundreds of tear shaped Seraph fighters and Spirit drop-ships made their way out of the fleet at into range of the planet.

_Versa _Defence platform 7

The C709-C Long-sword fighters of the Militia are modified bomber fighters, they weren't exactly the same as the UNSC developed, but were modified to support more weaponry and newer tech. The recently developed prototype energy barriers from Hypress research and advancement centre studied Covenant technology and was to implement the shields into the fleet.

The development group never got beyond the prototype stage for the smaller fighters and some ships, the shields were not reliable, the damage taken took a while for it to recharge leaving the fighter vulnerable, even so the UCAF pilots quickly make up for this by skills.

The squadron stationed aboard the defence platforms were made to fight dogfights, the first wave of Covenant Seraphs soon found themselves in a fight of their lives; the _Versa _defence platform had over four full squadrons in case of attack, reason being the platforms had never had sufficient defences against an attack.

As the pilots were rushing to sortie, Flight Commander Melissa Pham, one of the most decorated pilots within the UCAF, she rushed down the flight deck to her Long-sword the _Longan_, the blaring alarms and warning signals echoed as the Covenant began bearing their fangs to them.

Melissa began the final flight checks, suddenly a glowing from the holo-projector, a glowing blue form of energy materialised into a small blue man, Michi was a fourth generation smart AI, specifically created from her father's memories, witty and usually a good shot, he made up for her technical staff and support.

He greeted her. "It's good to see you again; I'm sure the alarm blaring and explosions doesn't mean the annual Founders day Festival."

Anna smiled she always knew Michi was a smart mouth, the two of them though worked well. "You already knew that so you should be finalising our start up right?"

Michi simply nodded and said. "We are launching in 30 seconds."

As Melissa finished strapping on her flight gear, the station shook from a direct hit, she knew they had to keep them safe until the Covenant was repelled or otherwise the planet would have much less than a chance.

The approved icons from the computer and active controls let her know; she launched the _Longan _forwards, speeding away from the dock she was immediately engaged in the combat zone.

Fighters engaged in a ballet of deadly fire, the _Longan _swerved through the plasma and debris, Melissa danced the _Longan_ past the deadly fire and began her own graceful and deadly art. The Seraphs and Long-swords' continually tore at each other for an hour, and the battle soon reached its end.

The Covenant vessels had reached the final line of defence, and the remnants of the battle group soon regrouped in orbit to slow the Covenant, though it didn't end well.

Melissa was getting tired, the Covenant had already sent their forces planet side but it wasn't going to be enough to stop them up in orbit, the defenders were going to air support and soon. She pointed the _Longan _andmade a bee line to the nearest friendly, the _Few and None _had been the only one within range and it was the only one relatively intact.

As the ship came into view she could see the definite beating it had taken from the battle, she entered com range and messaged over. "Few and None, this is _Longan _flight recognition 1-5-9, please respond."

The _Few and None _replied. "Acknowledged 1-5-9 we're opening the starboard bay."

Melissa saw the hangar bay open and turned the _Longan _into bay, as she touched down the flight deck, the refit crew quickly made their way to refitting the Long-sword with fresh sets of missiles, ammo, engines and armour plating.

As she made her way off the fighter's ramp one crewman went up to greet her. "Ma'am Captain Vance wants to see you."

The two walked to the lift, moving around through the hallways of the old Halcyon cruiser, they soon reached the bridge.

The view outside hadn't improved; the UCAF forces had nearly been wiped out, all of what remained in sight was the carrier and a single Covenant cruiser descending towards the planet.

Vance turned to face Melissa and greeted her. "I would welcome aboard, but time is short, you must be Flight Commander Melissa Pham."

Melissa respectably saluted and replied. "Sir, yes sir, I heard that you had some problems with the Covenant."

The Captain turned from her and went to the display table, activating it he pulled up a holographic position of both Covenant vessels. "Your guess is good as ours, we're not getting anywhere fast, the Covenant is deploying ground forces and we have to stop them before the Militia forces are over whelmed, but we're outgunned and outnumbered."

The Captain pointed to a 3D graphical representation of the vessel. "The cruisers will be a hard enough task of hitting fast and precisely and it'll be costly, but we can't hit the carrier at the same time. That is why we have you, our plan is simple the cruiser will be engaged by remaining forces while you and whatever remaining fighters will have to make a run on that carrier, there won't be a second chance if we fail though, so we need to get this right."

"So how do we take the carrier and their cruisers down fast enough?" Melissa asked.

For the first that day Captain Vance smiled, he motioned to the next item on the display. "We'll bring them down with this."

The images of the remaining vessels were replaced by a large device and on it in bold writing '_Shiva_-Class Nuclear Missile'. "So all we have to do is drop this on them and watch the fireworks."

"Oh well, I'll get right on it sir." Melissa saluted, and walked from the bridge and back down to the hangar bay, the Covenant were in for a surprise.

/End Segment ALPHA/ 1555hrs

/BETA Beginning/ 1520hrs/ M4 Field Recoding/ Matthew Ilabaca

Anomia Militia recordings, City, New Caldwell

The sirens began ringing across the city, and people started panicking, it had been over two hours since warnings were issued for immediate evacuation, but it wasn't a simple task, especially for the city of Caldwell.

The population had a number between 4.5 to 3 million over the entire city and urban areas it was no small feat to get everyone out, but the Militia knew and they were willing to get as many out as soon as possible.

For most people the shelters located far away from the city seemed like the safest for them, then once you have hundreds of drop-ships and fighters assaulting it tended to change, for one young corporal it was the same.

UCAF special forces corporal Matthew Ilabaca, the day just seemed to get increasingly better and better for him, he had been fighting across the city blocks, and his recently issued carapace armour (like ODST) had been scorched and dented by Covenant weaponry, he hadn't been having the best of days, now he was alone, stranded within enemy territory.

The first landings were to the centre of the city surrounding the space ports; the Covenant weren't just going to let anyone get off world alive, the Covenant soon began to deploy their troops on outskirts to bottle up the population from the outside.

The Militia though knew to think ahead and had reinforced the outskirts, the troops then began to repel Covenant forces in more controlled pockets rather than surrounding the city, but it wasn't as easy to gain ground or hold it at the centre of the city. The Covenant had been rolling forwards with vehicles and pushing them back with sheer numbers, and he knew this from experience.

Matthew turned around a corner of an alleyway, he knew it lead over to central command and communications base, the Covenant had been driving their forces to take it. And from what the reports said; subspace communications couldn't be properly relayed without the Acer's satellites in orbit, the Covenant had only realised this when they entered the region so they were trying to use their means of communications to signal the rest of their forces, Matthew wasn't going to let them have their way.

He walked past a pile of charred and blackened bodies; this had all been because the Covenant decided that humanity was a heretical race they decided it was a good idea to massacre indiscriminately. It made him feel sick.

As he went around a corner of the street, then as he went down past a cluster of damaged apartments he heard footsteps on an approach, he took a hard turn to another alleyway.

An elite and a pack of grunts marched away taking pause as the jackals scouted about, the avian like aliens picked their way through the street, scavenging for something to eat or sniffing out anything alive.

Matthew drew his M6S handgun; he continued to watch them, as one jackal picked about it managed to get the scent of his trail, it began to move slowly to his hiding spot, tensing he waited knowing the alien had found him. The alien was only a few feet away. "BOOM"

A loud explosion ripped the air, sending the aliens scrambling for cover, a few yells were heard and gunfire. Matthew could hear someone over the fire-fight. "Come on, you Covenant scum, you wanted hell and now you've got hell!"

Matthew looked to see a squad of UCAF marines on his VISR IFF that had ambushed the Covenant patrol, a group of eight or nine were gunning down the Covenant in the street. Matthew now had a distraction, he knew he could help, but the orders from UCAF command had been absolute.

No exceptions, the marines who held them off might or might not be killed, but to 'abandon them to die because of his orders?' He hated leaving people to fend for themselves but priority is first, if the Acer's satellite network doesn't go down the people who died for the Anomia would have been in vain.

He gritted his teeth and then slid past the fire fight. "Give'em hell marines." Giving a brief salute to the marines he slid away to the objective.

He made it past five blocks until another patrol was rushing their way to the fight, he knew those marines could fend off one squad, but two would easily outnumber and out gun them, he could only hope for the best.

Matthew walked through the far left hand side of another building when he saw a pack of grunts and elite were searching a shop, he knew that walking in the streets were the worst place to be. Covenant jackals and skirmishers were not the easiest to deal with. Especially since the jackals hid in the highest points overlooking the roads and moving along them, and skirmishers set for sniffing out targets for the jackals, if he wasn't careful it would get worse than bad.

Matthew slid past the patrol unnoticed, as he got ever closer to the centre of the city, more frequent patrols went by, he was sure now the Covenant had saw victory ahead and was making sure that the central part of the city was theirs.

As a phalanx of skirmishers and a regular patrol moved past him, Matthew slipped by moving ever closer to the command complex, the rest of the walk was simple, moving down through the war torn streets he made his way to the last block from the base.

The layout was impressive and harder to crack than he first thought, the base was a hexagonal building spiralling helix with a massive antenna that stretched over 9 stories high, and the building was reinforced from all sides round.

Bringing up his TAC mini data computer, he searched for the building layout, finishing up Matthew could only see two options, either move to a surrounding building and see if he could take a leap from there or sneak under through the maintenance system below the city.

There were problems with both plans, first off, the scanner detected movement and heat, Covenant jackals controlled the roof tops, and second the side he had to jump from to get into the building was too far off, he would probably break his legs trying.

The other plan was similar, the tunnels were overrun by buggers(drones), and trying to fight his way through a swarm like that was the worst idea, and that and he didn't have the necessary codes for the maintenance system.

So each plan was a death sentence, there had to be another way…

At that moment in time he observed, a patrol this time with a slow moving convoy heading towards the command complex, the Covenant had needed to drop supplies in for their ground operations, but the city was not theirs yet so dropping supplies in by the gravity lift was risk, so they had to ship by phantom and then by shadow transports. Though not all of these were well guarded, and the transports themselves had been stripped down of the main turret for more cargo space, the drivers were grunts, and this made things a lot easier for Matthew.

As another shadow hovered by, Matthew had an idea, although risky it was better than the other two he had in mind.

XXXXX

A sole grunt, Dun 'do was having a bad day, he had been dosing off for the past few days, then the commander had changed course of their fleet to pursue a single force of humans and now they were assaulting a city, he really didn't know why or even cared all he wanted to do was stay somewhere safe, though safe wasn't in human controlled territory.

He continued to pilot the shadow transport to the ground complex, it was where the elite officers had ordered them to go, the centre had been in their control though outside was an ongoing battle, he was just glad he wasn't in the front line like the rest of the other cannon fodder, he was in deep thought of what it would be like back on his home world, he really didn't care about much else.

The only thing was that Dun 'do never saw the silhouette of Matthew sprinting and jumping aboard his transport.

End part 1

That's for now, keep watching for other updates!


	2. Prologue part 2

Returning to prologue part 2

(Reworking) thanks for the views btw

Please note I have to redo the second prologue; please tell me if there are any problems or errors so I can rectify.

Either than this enjoy.

-**CODEX**- Trans-light communications\ACER SAT NET

SATCOM or TRANSCOM; was the main communications for planetary communications, but it also plays a vital means of communications to other planets and other systems within the sector, the colonists who first arrived realised the difficulties with living in the sector was communication. At first transports sent out usually carried messages, but this could prove to be hazardous, the ships sent out had the higher chance of missing their jumps or end up missing.

But the communications had been the biggest of concerns because waiting took days if not weeks for messages or reports, it was until a man named Erice Acers, designed the first trans-light subspace satellites. It created a beam of trans-light energy and sent the signal over subspace then to another satellite, this system proved useful as it also increased the accuracy of jumps made and communication signals.

Only the colonies of Nova Stratus developed such a system, but with each signal it was also the risk that each signal sent had to be precise with where it went, so thankfully another adaptation was made by Acers, by developing the tans-light signalling system.

The system signal sent a single pulse of energy from A to B and the return signal came back to the origin, it possessed an intricate design and had to be perfected, but even by most UNSC or the outer colonies it was advanced. It could tell if the ship made transit would come out into a region densely clustered or if a gravity well was to close, this improvement made the jumps much safer.

First produced: Anomia Hypress, 2301 February 19

/ BETA continue/ Part 2 1540hrs

Matthew waited as the transport hovered into the base, it had gone under some security checks but it seemed as though the guards were distracted because of fighting, crawling into the supply containers hadn't been a bad idea.

There was shuffling sounds as the Covenant had started to move the containers and carry them; he was bumped around for a good ten minutes until reaching his destination, or what he hoped was close.

Pushing the lid open, he froze, he saw the grunts, small monkey like but usually scared little things, they were all going for a rest, the room he was in seemed like the freezer. There was one thing different, the air had high concentrations of methane in it, he quickly registered this when his HUD started blinking with alerts, quickly placing his helmet securely on his head and carefully crept out.

The grunts huddled up never saw or heard as Matthew made his way out of the room, Matthew then proceeded to carefully climb the flight of stairs, and he drew his silenced M6 magnum trying to stay out of sight, made his way to the communications.

The three levels he cleared easy, but the fourth was a challenge, the floor had the communications systems on the other side, but between him and there, three rooms aligned the two side of the hallway, and in each Covenant who were out for blood, elites as he could tell were the hardest to kill, being some nearly 8ft in total was not the best of things to be going against and the whole floor being filled with them made it just as bad.

The situation dictated action, and he had to provide. Looking left to right he spotted the elites, and the grunts, it was a straight shot to the right, and then he would be able to access the communications and intel relay.

Timing his approach he made his way to the left side of the wall to get a better shot at the guards, removing his SMG, he took aim at the grunts, changing the burst fire to a compression round, he targeted the closest grunt.

Within a flash the grunts mask came off with a good part of his skull. At that very moment the other grunts noticed that their fellow had lost his head, quite literally. The screams of the grunts and panic confused the elite on guard who watched as another grunt had his skull blown to pieces.

Matthew lobbed two grenades, a flash and a frag grenade, the simultaneous explosions added to the mayhem. The elite on guard was knocked back as the explosions threw him off his feet, the grunts that remained were blown to pieces by the grenades.

And then Matthew made his move. Rushing around the corner Matthew instinctively fired on the elite, his silenced M7I began to chew apart the elite's remaining shields, then half way through the clip the bullets finally managed to tear into the body of the elite.

A short roar of pain and the elite went down. Matthew carefully approached with his M6 and shot the elite in the head, he had to be sure. Scanning the area he quickly knew that the others would have heard the death of their comrade and would be charging in to kill him.

Matthew found the Intel mainframe and began to upload all the data, the process was expected to take another five minutes. Drawing out his third holstered weapon, he removed his shotgun. The yells of alarm outside the room became louder as the groups began to converge on his position.

"It's a good day to die!" He yelled.

/BETA PART 1 END/ 1600hrs

Orbit around Anomia 1620hrs

/ALPHA PART 2/ BEGIN

Melissa had gotten her refit and rearmament in a few minutes, the crew had to rush things, alongside the _Longan _there were two other squadrons of Longswords, the _Few and None, _had completed a circle of the battle field searching for survivors, the fleet remnants were nearly non-existent. The only remaining vessels were, a dozen frigates, and one refitted dock with a dozen heavily damaged vessels, the rest of the fleet survivors were in the bays working on the damage or helping with the final preparations.

Three squadrons of longswords were capable of flight while others which had been damaged were scrapped for parts, Melissa walked down the hangar, she saw the crew bringing more survivors and wounded, the ship had exceeded its crew complement a long time ago.

On the bridge, Captain Vance had explained his plan; the remaining commanders aboard their ships seemed to think he was insane. "How are we supposed to fight two Covenant vessels with a dozen ships, we may be strong, but not AWOL enough to charge at still functioning Covenant cruisers, this plan relies on one fighter to do serious damage to the super carrier behind while the rest provide a distraction, that's outright suicide!"

Vance had a feeling that it wasn't going to be easy. "Well what do we do about our people?, we have millions of citizens and we can't leave them for the torch, besides even if we run the Covenant are going to chase us over the entire sector, and if they call for reinforcements it'll only get worse."

The other officer shut up, they knew that Vance was right; the Covenant would scour every inch to locate them, and the Anomia was their home, to lose it to the Covenant would be devastating.

The time flew, with only another five or so minutes before the operation began, the code name of their operation became First Blood, the irony in this way was the Covenant had struck first but now it was the Fleets turn to show their teeth, irony or not the battle had to be fought and won.

Melissa got back into her cockpit, this time with a few new members.

A blue eyed teen crewman apprentice who had enlisted a year back, his name was Jonathan Reyes, and Reyes seemed the stable type but was overly eager to join a fight.

At the gunnery seat was another young man, Alex Heinemann, Alex was born on Anomia, but his family came from Earth, he was from an Asian and German background, clean cut brown hair and smooth hazel eyes, he had been part of the Fleets for two years, making lance corporal.

And finally the one who sat at Navigations was, Jackson Herring, a seventeen year old private, recently gotten a promotion to first class private, Jackson was a tall and slightly large, but overall he was a cool headed marine, he had a know how to fly through most obstacle courses with ease and had a variety of technical skills, but Michi was hoping to take over for that part.

Now with a few minutes left, the final flight procedures were being made, Jackson said. "We are green and we are very mean."

The others in the cockpit knew what he meant, they were unprepared but ready to go, or so they hoped.

The _Longan _exited out of the hangar bay, followed behind by the remaining squadrons of Longswords, the fight was now to the end.

_Few and None _and the other remaining vessels formed three diamond formations, with her in the lead, the _Longan _sped towards the cruiser with the squadrons closely behind, they were to hit hard and fast, then as the fighters came into range the Covenant began deploying their seraph fighters.

The two forces were closing in, as the _Longan _saw the first wave Melissa ordered. "Good hunting people, firing first volley away."

The archers launched across the space between them and the opposing ships, the missiles swung past striking a few and scrambling the rest, the Seraphs responded with pulse canons, the two forces clashed once more.

_Longan _zipped by the main concentration of fighters hopefully to reach the carrier in time, it hadn't worked as well as they hoped though, and three seraphs were now hard on their tail, the 120mm ventral guns swung about as Melissa did a barrel roll. Chewing apart the first seraph it quickly turned its attention to the others, the second twisted in a corkscrew to avoid the guns, but Melissa countered with two missiles, blowing the second from stern to bow, the final seraph was harder, most likely a skilled elite, the two chased each other the whole length over to the cruiser. The seraph pilot was good, but Melissa was better, using the old loop de loop, she quickly turned the table, both of the forward rotary cannons ripped the opposing fighter apart.

Back on the _Few and None _the crew were giving everything they had to reach their objective, the MAC rounds flew out again and again, 600kg of tungsten shot off at 1/5th speed of light, even so the Covenant cruiser seemingly took the punishment and continued to return fire.

Vance was now laughing death in the face, the slugs and plasma flew about, once more finding their marks, the plasma struck across the lower bow and starboard decks, the _Few and None _alongside the other Fleets crafts continued to push forwards, the punishment on the old Halcyon class cruiser was bad but she wasn't going down yet, unknown to the Covenant the Fleets had not been ignorant in the refit of the _Few_, thanks to the idea of emplacing heavier weapons, the archer missile pods sat next to four hundred ASGM-10 Missiles, the missiles at close range could give any ship hell within seconds.

As they closed range the Fleets frigates made their pass around the flanks of the Covenant cruiser, the starboard side of the Covenant cruiser was now open, the frigates stared to pound across the whole length of the Cruiser, while the _Few and None _struck out against their bow, the constant pounding forced the cruiser to pull away from orbit, but in doing so Vance saw his chance. "Fire, all ASGMs at aft, concentrate fire now!"

The dozen vessels struck out, blowing apart piece by piece, but the four hundred plus missiles now en route the Covenant cruisers crew could only watch as a wave of missiles washed over them, the whole view was a fireworks of white and blue, the Covenant cruiser was nothing more.

At the same time they noticed the large detonation of the Shiva nuclear device, it had detonated on the Covenant super carrier, the ship had been attempting to escape via slip-space, but thanks to Melissa it was stopped in mid-flight, though there was a problem, the vessel wasn't crippled it lost its engines, and the large wave of EMP energy caused by the slip-space field and Shiva had created a mass of energy, causing the Covenant Carrier to lose navigations, the EM wave soon crashed over the remaining Militia vessels, Melissa could only see the oncoming shockwave, she ordered to brace but all she felt was nothing.

/END ALPHA PART2/ 1700hrs

/BETA PART2 BEGIN/ 1625hrs

Bullets ripped the darkened hallways with lights of gold. Matthew watched as another elite fell, this time it was a spec ops. He had held the elites and their fellow troops at bay for over five minutes, in which time he managed to kill over a dozen elites. The bottle neck of the corridor made it nearly impassable and every attempt had resulted in casualties.

But now Matthew was running dry his weapons would never hold out against the covenant numbers. Changing once more he loaded his shotgun for close quarters and waited. A grunt made a desperate run but was stopped as Matthew came back out of cover and tore him to ribbons.

The TAC on his arm suddenly beeped with a blue light, the mission was completed and he needed to escape. There was a notice about an incoming danger about the battle in space, the Shiva was en route for detonation and he needed to get out fast. His HUD suddenly light up as it pointed him to his next objective.

A fire escape in the right hand corner of the room suddenly became accessible and unlocked; Matthew covered his escape by throwing the last of his grenades. Running in the confusion of the explosive aftermath, Matthew reached the door and shut it behind him.

He quickly began climbing the stairs; the flight seemed to pass in a blur as he sprinted every three steps. Years of training in the Hypress academy for Spec Ops hadn't been for nothing, he needed it when he joined the UCAF corps, and he still had it now.

The final steps went by as he reached the roof floor, smacking the white emergency floor door open he stepped onto the open air catwalk. Looking about he could see his next objective, the landing pad over the length of the complex.

Bolting his way across the roof, he came under fire, a group of skirmishers were sitting on a nest on the opposite wing of the complex, and they had spotted him and began firing their needler rifles. The pink shards seemed to scrap his shields as he sprinted as fast as he could.

"Where's my Evac?" He asked over his com.

"Right here Mattie." A familiar voice replied.

A hawk loaded with heavy weapons and new exhaust jets appeared, it began covering fire. The figure on the side stepped out to get him on board.

"Good to see you again Yahn." He called as he arrived.

"Yeah well don't get too comfortable, we're calling it close, that Shiva is about to go critical." He said hefting him aboard.

Leaving the fight behind the chopper made it through the burning remains of the city below.

"So I wonder when is that Shiva going to go off?"

"I'd say another twenty or so minutes."

"Can we out run that?"

"Probably not. We're in a troop carrier not a fighter." He said checking his TAC.

"Then where are we headed?"

"East command to Caldera, and then to Cross Point, hopefully command has some support waiting for us there."

They travelled for another ten minutes, as they flew about; a fighter wave went over ahead of them, Striker fighters for nearly five years back. As they escaped the city limits the skies suddenly lit up.

"Aw shit." Yahn said.

"Pilot, get us the hell out of here!" Mattie yelled.

The hawk began to fly away as fast as it could, but the shockwave kept coming, in a few moments of exiting the range of the city, the impact wave washed over the small troop carrier.

/BETA PART2 END/ 1705hrs


	3. Timeline

Timeline

The following aftermath of the First Blood operation

2553 January 5

The exhausted colonial fleet Militia head towards their main space port of Shaun Lake orbital station, the report was, the remainder of the fleet had suffered heavy EM damage due to unprecedented slip-space anomaly, the _Few and none had _returned back to port with heavy damage to the starboard and bow, but he ship remained amazingly intact, colonial shipyards were also affected by the EM wave rendering the equipment useless, it would take over six months to repair the remains of the fleet and another three after to start construction again.

Militia forces now devastated by the sheer damage from the Covenant attack are now under threat, the Covenant had launched a ground force of over 9,000 troops, this was a serious threat considering the fact they still had most of their hardware still active, vehicles and weaponry at their disposal the remaining Covenant forces now build up their strength.

With only so many available bodies, the Militia have only a single option left, a mass of volunteers are conscripted as part of the main forces, the population agrees to this desperate plan, the total force of Militia now reach over 7,500 with 2,300 auxiliaries, vehicles not affected by the EM wave are commissioned by the Militia.

The standing population of Anomia is 5.7 million, but only a segment is part of the Militia forces, the other things that soon come to mind are, if the Covenant had managed to send a signal or if they had any other vessels that the Militia had overlooked, but with communications from the Acers arrays it was impossible to tell what might be happening.

2553 March 24

Covenant forces on Anomia begin a siege of colony centre Heather Fields, the area was an agricultural strong point and produced much needed supplies for the civilian population, the city is eventually destroyed, casualty lists of the 21,359 only 755 escaped, Militia forces realise the threat the Covenant remanent possesses.

2553 April 31

Mysterious armoured figures had been seen running about with the Militia forces, the Militia marines call them the 'Venerators' for 'the first colonists who came to Anomia and tamed the land' the name is soon spread across their world, the 'Venerators' had been seen ripping away at the Covenant forces with ease, this also raised the question "Where did they come from?" this was asked by Colonel Cody R Luther commander of eastern gate garrison.

2553 July 21

Contact is re-established with surrounding colonies, but the worst is confirmed, E-band communications from Pyros, and half a dozen others, the 'Venerators' finally revealed themselves, they were armoured soldiers in plated Iridium over their intricate design, they stood out each with different adaptations for each unit, they also reveal that the ONI and UNSC knew of the colonies of Nova Stratus and placed the colonies under their jurisdiction, the colonists resented this but had no other choice, begrudgingly accepted the UNSC help.

The ONI vessels soon made their moves to save the remaining colonies with the Venerators.

2553 August 15

Venerators had destroyed Covenant loyalists, and news to one of the elite commanders receives that the war had been well over, he and his comrades stand down, the Jiralhanae commanders of separate forces do not, and continue to wreak havoc over the whole sector.

2553 October 27

UNSC vessels arrive in system to provide much needed aid to the colonies, the people of Anomia are happy to accept, the population was too exhausted to be angry or displeased, just happy to have survived.

Venerators are now left on standby and others ordered to protect remaining colonies of, Shanxi, Xiang and Nostra, the relief from the UNSC reinforces with a few new ships, all Militia who fought alongside the ONI are recognised as actual seasoned soldiers and are allowed to join UNSC forces.

2553 December 25

Marks the one year of warfare the people of Nova Stratus had lived through, Snagheili forces arrive also to mark the anniversary with a treaty, the treaty of New Mombasa is signed and officially UNSC and Sangheili are declared as neighbouring allies.

2554 January 11

The following months after the UNSC had held the treaty, the actions taken by the Covenant loyalists who remained had suggested they had been looking desperately for something, the Militia in all likeness decided to hold the Covenant off from ever reaching their goal, the Militia's home base stationed at Shaun lake city with an orbital elevator, begins to fully mobilise their forces.

January 12th

The battle of Hazed Path Park, the following campaign launched by the Militia struck at the main excavation site, Militia assaulted the excavation site with heavy armour, the Covenant taken by surprise and soon overwhelmed, the support also came from UNSC, ONI, and project Venerator.

Prologue

Marjenovick, Mikel

– Survivor of operation First Blood, Militia corporal 151st Company, Final entry-

The battlefield, some say it was a place that forged men into warriors or it broke them, Mikel knew of both because of what the war had done to him, the days of peace that their colony had prospered in seemed like a long lost memory, even though it happened a few months ago, until the Covenant came, the scream of war had faded, and now the Covenant had finally been subdued by the Militia.

The day the orbital sensors picked the Covenant battle cluster up, the colony went into lockdown, the civilians had been asked into the contingency shelters pre-fabricated during the mid of the war and follow the security protocols, and all Colonial Militia had been asked to volunteer their services with the defence of the cities, when the first Covenant wave came down, it frightened some and when more came the volunteers did what they did best, the defenders had been stretched to their maximum capabilities and relied on the Militia to fight, the first time he witnessed the Covenant rushing them was the first time he missed everything that was once home.

The hours of fighting had worn the militia down, he himself was too tired to move, but the battle had to go on, he quickly learnt the trait of quick drawing and field stripping weapons, the battle continued through the night, he and what had been over an entire company had been left at only a third of their strength, he saw too many die from plasma fire and mortar bombings, the order to withdraw came to his position when a large carrier approached the city from orbit, all the militia had been ordered out and told to protect the surviving colonists, when they reached their designated convoy the city was obliterated by a nuclear blast.

The casualty reports soon flooded in to his groups despair most of their families had been still within the city when it fell, he had lost his entire family, the pain of losing so many lives that day didn't shake him after then, he could only focus his anger on the covenant for what they did, he and the Militia all swore they would make them pay.

The day came as Mikel and his squad patrolled a section of the state the Covenant loyalists had controlled when they were forced from their main base, the militia had harassed them as much as they could, but the Covenant loyalists still had strength, the occasional bombing and attack runs the Brutes threw at them were repelled but it still exhausted them, the conflict only lasted over 13 months but it had worn the main Covenant occupiers to nearly nothing, now the Covenant loyalists had become desperate.

The Militia Scouts had identified a Covenant excavation site of some significance; the Intel division had been on the lookout for troop movements but instead uncovered this, the covenant had been shipping a lot of defensive gear and mining to dig in a large valley called: Hazed Path Park.

The park itself had never gone under a full sweep by the colonists and they barely touched it, but for an unknown reason the Covenant had taken an interest, the Intelligence teams had presumed that the Covenant had come in search of shelter or forward base but whatever had been buried at Hazed Path Park was more important.

The infiltration teams sent over had struck with precision, all the data on the excavation revealed a mysterious structure buried into a mountain side within the valley, the plan was the Militia forces would strike with every available force they had, the 3rd and 5th Marine divisions as well as the ADST insertion troops of the 7-9th companies, mobile armoured Elephant transports and M808 Scorpion MBTs and MAAT-9 Wolverines to give anti-air support with MJ LRG Rail Gun- Cobra, the plan was to strike the covenant forces at night and lure them out while the infiltration teams take down the shield generators, the rest of the forces were to begin entrenched positions around so the Covenant could not call for reinforcements or withdraw.

The tactic worked, the Militia drew them out while the infiltration teams took out the barrier they had set in place, the main force then bored into the Covenant lines, the artillery teams wiped the defenders out while the main ground force cleared the rest, the battle had lasted over several hours, until the structure had been secured.

Inside the structure had stood an eight pronged object with a vortex core of energy swirling inside, the dark navy plating around suggested a different technological device seeing the whole chamber itself was clean and sterile white metal colour, the facility Militia had heard from surviving UNSC marines that a mysterious alien species once existed thousands of years before and created massive technological marvels, but most disclaimed them as rumours from explorers and expeditionary vessels which travelled about, but in all it was interesting.

The sheer daunting size said otherwise, the chamber was lined with glyphs and glowing symbols, one area had a holographic console, while the research teams had made their way in, it was Major Grey and his platoon who had the honour of protecting and securing the object.

Mikel was dazed but quickly focused on the battle of the control room he and his squad pushed in with Grey and Tobias, the battle had already been won, except the last sniper who found his mark when Mikel entered the room.

The last thing he ever saw was his mother calling him home….. home….


	4. CH1

Ch1

Recesses

Anomia 2553 January 15th

Hazed Path Park 0030hrs

Major Daniel. W. Grey stood outside of the balcony of the recently captured structure the Covenant had controlled, the forest around him that had once been set alight now cooled, the cool night air had begun filtering in, he stood watching the night long after the glow of the sun that had set on the horizon.

The hours had crept by as he stood, tall lean and strong figure, he had modified armour consisted of Energised shield plates of his powered Venerator armour and combat camouflage coloured over layer over his body suit, the young man also had a modified Recon helmet.

The nights had gone and come, three days the Militia had held the position of Hazed Path Valley with the Covenant trying to break in every so often, the Covenant had gotten desperate trying anything and everything but the war had already been declared over, the survivors had taken back what was lost, some cities had just been starting reconstruction and people starting lives again, Shaun Lake city was the only one to fully recover, it had been the Militia's base of operations, it had possessed a orbital elevator that served as the only means of getting into space, Grey sighed, the war had been costly, he knew as well as every other Militia marine.

Only three days ago he had been the one to break the Covenant within the valley, the Covenant had held the valley attempting to study or activate an artefact that had been left thousands of years previously by another ancient sapient species, the discovery had generated more fear with the population because of what this meant, it could be bad or very bad, considering everything it would probably be bad.

It had been the first time that they had also been on the attacking side; for the most part the Militia had been focusing their forces on defending the survivors of the colony, all 5,700,000 that had been recently rebuilding, most were orphaned children and families, doctors and technicians and some others, the only remaining people of the 9 million either than their neighbouring colony of Shanxi.

He had been in the action for over 9 years since 2545 being the only one who had launched successful campaigns against Covenant occupiers, he quickly rose in rank, after several months since Operation: First Blood he had an entire company under his command with vehicle support, he and a few selected members had been part of a special program just after the Militia was formed.

Project Venerator, the project had been created to advance different groups of children with gene augmentations, he and hundreds of others were selected for the program, from the hundreds of others the ONI scarped through each candidate carefully culling off those incapable or unable.

His parents did not wish for him to undertake the project, but from his own point of view the chance to do something great go to him, so they eventually agreed, the ONI asked for the family to keep the project secret, the chance of them ever talking would meant they would lose their son, reassurances from them on what they were going to do. "Your child has the potential to help protect Earth and her colonies and the millions if not the billions that are under threat." With that said they took him, he was only seven.

The first few months within a secluded facility for training and education helped build up his strength, the sheer scale of the project that been undertaken was massive, he had the honour of being the first in the project, he soon met with many others, but they had only been referred to their number rather than name, the war continued for over another six years until they were ready.

He and his supplementary family continued their training for over six years, the forces were separated into Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, Upsilon, Sigma and Omega platoons over 350 children he had seen what they could achieve and pushed him and his platoon to do what they could, the war with the Covenant continued and ONI was frantic in preparations for the first generation to be sent into the field, UNSC forces were stretched and the chances of survival were slowly dimming.

The first procedure enhanced his muscular structure and growth hormones, the second to third came in a period between each other, they enhanced his neural pathways, and his cornea allowing more enhanced sight and intelligence, the final few were his enhanced organs and reflexes, the project which had taken over a year changed over the hundreds of lives and ended a dozen more.

The Venerator project had been to create a separate Spartan force but by using different methods, the augmentations they had received were prototypes for future Spartans but they were not as lethal because the augmentations were using different base line chemicals and procedures, but it had taken much longer for them to become active, some of the others say too long, Reach was glassed two weeks before deployment.

He and his fellow augments were technically not allowed to be seen by the public as the colony was an independent state, the population wasn't allowed to know of ONI secret project within their midst, the Venerators were allowed to call their families a few times though, the talks were only for a few minutes and most of the time they had a chance to send something back, ONI had wished to keep them from becoming too attached so the talks were slowly pushed out of the way with a yearly message or two.

The ONI operations learnt of Reach being glassed, the ONI quickly set the Venerators to leave for the front within the coming weeks, the first platoon to go was Sigma readily needed to help with Covenant pursuers in Beta Centauri which had only recently came under attack, this was also a good means of testing the efficiency of the Venerators.

Nova Stratus was technically the only colony within reach of Beta Centauri seeing as it was the second furthest colony in existence and being the most remote and hardest to locate.

This made the colony ideal for the colonists who wished to avoid UNSC control but with the ONI hidden under the public radar, the colonies were not as unsupervised as they had actually known.

The platoon left for orbit and Grey watched another day go by, the only problem with what had happened, that Sigma had successfully diverted the enemy forces from devastating the colony but had attracted attention, the UNSC fleet orbiting the colony soon found themselves against a wall as more Covenant ships poured out of slip space, Sigma team and their ship drew the enemy forces from the colony and made an emergency jump to Nova Stratus, the plan was to lose the Covenant within the ion storms that usually raced through some of the sectors, but sadly it only half worked, twenty five ships had chased them and all but one were lost, the last one had managed to hide itself and follow Sigma's frigate to the colonies, it then broadcasted out loud a message, the Covenant forces soon learnt of the colonies and swarmed in.

After that day most of the Venerators had been scattered fighting over their home world and the others which came under attack, the Covenant thankfully couldn't communicate with their forces outside of the nebula because of the ion storms, the Covenant assault carrier the last ship to be brought down attempted a jump but a shot from a Shiva nuke stopped it in mid-flight, though it came at a consequence as all radio and sub-space communications had gone down, the ONI was the same, they had lost all communications, the colonial fleet had been wiped out and what remained was a wreck, the war with the Covenant occupiers was all that was left.

The night came back to him, the open air once tasted of the blood and metal now was a cool and clear, the refreshing forest night had played memories in his head, the nights he had gone camping with his brother and the times of going out with his family, the times he had spent with James, Christian and Jenny and the rest of Alpha, all had gone, the night the Covenant came.

His attention was quickly brought around when he heard a loud crash, not to his surprise was his medical officer Hyung. J. Andrew, Andrew had served as his medic when they first met when he enrolled as Militia two years previously, Andrew had a knack for knowing different types of ailments and earned a lower class medical promotion, he and another dozen had also fought in the first battle, when they met.

Andrew quickly straightened up to face his CO and stuttered something quickly Grey had understood. "S-si-sir the techs and ONI spooks just found something you need to see."

Grey sighed; ONI had a way of getting under his skin the called him for the ridiculous assignments. He went down the long hallways of alien ancient glowing glyphs, the sight of them had interested him, the fact that there was something older than the covenant and humanity was always something new, the walk to the Cortex as Lira the smart AI had told him what it was not very long, the chamber was only a hundred meters below and the mysterious Cortex itself spanned even further down the chamber.

He reached the chamber a few minutes later; the Cortex a massive dark blue device suspended within the chamber had four large prongs at the end with top had eight, four in the middle were merged as one, and four on the outside but in the middle it had a massive chamber of energy, the ONI and tech teams said that it was the only power source it ran on.

He made his way past the bustle of the research team until he reached a certain raven haired woman with strangely tinted glasses, the woman turned to face him. "Ah, Grey how have you been, it has been a rather long time, since our last talk hasn't it?"

Grey had a usual neutral face, but he was curious there was only one other person either than his Squad that called him 'Grey' or 'Major'. "Dr Valerie, I knew there had to be a reason."

She looked at him in a curious manner and asked. "And why would that be?"

Grey looked to her and replied in a matter-of-factly tone. "Because you used to order me and my squad out into the field for your pet projects, now you're going to ask me and my company for another plan, and I'm going to assume it has something to do with that." Grey pointed to the Cortex.

Dr Valerie nodded with humour and replied. "Yes sadly it does but it won't be here."

Grey was confused. "Wait, why isn't it here?"

She fumbled around with her tools like she always did when she was going to drop a bombshell. "The ONI has requested a transfer of your company and another to be deployed elsewhere."

He turned to face her again and asked. "Wait you don't mean that we're being deployed elsewhere with two other forces, as in somewhere else we have no clue about?"

She looked at him and said. "The Covenant has taken an interest on the Cortex because of its unique origins but the problem is that the Cortex can't be utilised inside the chamber and what's more is that we found something more."

The picture on another display showed a map of their sector; she zoomed into a section revealing a large object in space, the same design and shape but separate rather than the Cortex between Anomia and Shanxi.

Grey figured something like this would happen. "You mean go to the other side of that relay without any or no Intel on what might be there, and that and you know how I feel about space?"

She looked at him as though he hurt her. "Of course there we'll give you Intel, it'd be a waste to lose a Venerator squad as well as the entire companies."

Grey stared at her and asked. "No it wouldn't but is it really worth it?"

She paused at what he said and remembered what happened, she slowly turned away and replied. "No this is not like last time Grey, I still know that you grieve about Mikal, it won't end like before."

He sighed to himself and proceeded to ask. "What is it that we need to do?"

She activated a display screen of what they were looking for, the image came through with what looked like a darkened the same object, readouts and gravitational reports, Valerie then told him. "The probes we sent through show that it ended up at some kind of station similar as the one on this side, the scanners showed nothing else afterwards, the most interesting thing is that it had travelled over thousands light years in nothing short of a few moments."

Grey was surprised, the mysterious device had slung the probe over an incredible distance, the technological feat in such things weren't exactly unheard but it concerned him, he turned to see the Dr had started to pack her gear, he could only guess… "You're going coming with us aren't you?"

The Dr smiled and she replied. "Why wouldn't I, beside you guys always get the fun, besides you need the best specialists available around to help don't you?"

He wondered what she meant by that when suddenly. "Oh, Grey did you miss us?"

He turned to see a half a dozen of the previously known group of smart AI given to the Venerators during their initiation on the field.

He could make out all of them, Daniel, Miran, Dylan, Alexi, Jackson, and Lima; the group simply waved a friendly hello.

Grey looked back to the Dr and asked. "So I guess the facts that we're going into space suggests that ONI has a new and shiny ship ready for us."

She simply nodded and asked him. "Yes, but it won't be shiny, first we have to get going now if we're going to catch it, tell your company to get to the Forest road rail and get on the next one to Shaun lake and get to the orbital elevator we've got ourselves a surprise."

He acknowledged and headed to the exit, he knew that the day was going to be anything but uneventful.


	5. CH2

Ch2

(Thanks for the views) BTW this chapter the Turians do not know the _Aspire _is a frigate it technically is the size of one of their cruisers okay. And the other thing is the turian admiral's ship is in Latin.

This has been changed due to someone saying something please wait for part 2

The City of Shaun Lake was a large population centre of 700,000 plus, it sat floating in the middle of the actual lake, the water here was pure and constantly cleaned, the place was the largest trading spot on Anomia, either than what was once his home city.

As the Mag-train approached it shone out against the glistening waters, the calm water rolling around as the sky scrapers simply gleamed, white buildings of the city sat there just as brightly reflecting the sunlight, the orbital elevator a long tower that reached into the sky, the train had been due to arrive at station within a few more hours, Grey knew that the kind Dr had forgotten to mention the train couldn't reach the ground onto the docks, he and his company were to walk the rest to the ship hangars.

Once they reached their designated station when they found the Dr had already thought ahead for her companions, Valerie stood on a passenger M831 Troop Transport and smiled asking. "Are you coming?" the company surprised got to their designated vehicles while Jordan Hartman the gunnery sergeant had his share of fun unloading his New M808 Grizzly tank, and their armoured column the company brought along with them.

The column consisted of:

2 MAAT-9 Main Anti-Air Tanks

12 LRV warthogs a mixture of AA and Gauss and missile variant

2 M312 Heavy Recovery Vehicles

2 M-145D Rhino tanks

2 M808 Scorpion MBTs

They were checking the overall operations within each vehicle, Gunnery Sergeant Jordan as the one who was in charge of the column was there to make sure everything was prepared for transportation and their deployment, when he felt satisfied with the quick overview, he ordered them to move to the Ship docks.

The trip to the docks was uneventful, people in the city all had seen the Militia moving troops through the city and to the front lines, seeing the company driving to the docks really didn't matter to them.

The time they managed to get to the docks went fast, Valerie asked them to follow her Hog to the private hangar from the public terminals, as they reached it they could see the hangar, the shape suggested it was much larger than that of an UNSC frigate.

When they entered the hangar they found the sight astounding, there in front of them sat a large frigate the equivalent size of one frigate and a half, the matte black amour stood out against the illuminated hangar, the work crews shifted around the hull, adding the finishing touches.

Valerie introduced them. "Welcome boys and girls to the UNSC prototype frigate _Aspire unto Tomorrow_, the first stealth frigate and first shielded UNSC vessel with advanced Anti-gravity fields, she has a complement of 250 technicians engineers and other personnel, and is fully equipped with Naval vessels: 4 Pelican gunships, 6 Albatross dropships, 6 Skyhawk fighters and Sparrow hawk gunships, as well as 5 Experimental Saber class fighters, and she is only ours for this mission."

Valerie asked Grey to move his forces into the boarding platform of the frigate while they talked. "The UNSC had gone to all those lengths for us?"

Valerie responded in a positive tone. "Not entirely, your squad and company as well as the other two were seen as the most competent for the entire mission, that and the fact that the Sabers weren't only meant for you, there is also another experimental Frame squadron that is arriving onboard once we get into orbit, the teams for those units are from separate Venerator platoons though."

Grey had heard what she meant, there had been other squads of Venerators that were being deployed with them, he asked. "Which squads is it?"

She looked at him and said. "It's Dominic and Christina."

He remembered who they were, the Rider of Stratus and Lion of Novara, the only two who had high status either than him.

Dominic' squad had aerial skills and space combat, their squad was deployed around Stratus Alp a colony in which the Covenant had targeted previously, Christina and her squad were stealth and infiltration specialists who ripped through Covenant held territories in Novara, a world not far away.

As the two of them entered the lift for the bridge, Grey asked. "Did ONI think it necessary to give us a frigate it seems a little unnecessary doesn't it?"

She smiled and replied in a terse manner. "Trust me it can perform just as well, the UNSC just got their hands on some trans-light wave length barriers and applied the two together ended up creating a solid stealth shield and we can effect full stealth operations, so why not test her out here."

The thought of UNSC having new shields and stealth technology did help ease some thoughts but having to bring this many people and weaponry along meant something else.

Valerie continued her explanation of the ship to him. "The _Aspire_ also has new point defenses, like the Spartan lasers we developed point laser defenses and a prototype laser canon; the ship has over 24 of them plus the main laser and 6 Archer missile pods of 40 each, and one MAC, the ship possesses the more advanced designs such as the new tri-fusion reactors and multilateral energized shields, long range sensor scanners and 2 meters of carbon iridium amour layered over each other making the ship capable of withstanding a pounding from a Covenant cruiser."

Valerie finished as they reached the bridge, the Captain who was in charge was standing at a console he turned around to see them both, saluted with Grey returning it and spoke in a clear military manner. "Major, and Dr. Valerie it is good to see you, I'm Captain Duran Graves, I was informed that you'd be accompanying us."

Grey observed, the man was a veteran with short silvery blonde hair, the captain looked as though in his 60s and yet he had the strong physical form of a twenty year old.

Valerie explained that an accident some years in the war caused a slight side effect; a slip-space jump had gone off when a covenant CCS cruiser poured a lot of plasma into the blind jump, the effect overcharged a strange anomaly that caused a medical mystery that plagues the captain.

A technician arrived with the final status report, the ship had been fully prepped and all crew accounted for, Grey Company had been checked over and news of the other companies said that they were waiting in orbit, so without any delay the crew of the _Aspire _begun final preparation.

The _Aspire _had been completed with only the ship itself to test in space, the orbital elevator lifted the ship into a carrier rig moving up the elevator itself, the crew looked down on their world, Grey paused, he had always wondered what it would be like to look at the world he once lived on.

The blue oceans and green texture of the large plains and the white peaks of the Nova point Alps, he lived there, and now he was ready to leave, the galaxy awaited him and his company; he only hoped that they were prepared for whatever came.

The meeting with the two squads wasn't bad, though flying past the lower observation deck to say high to everyone wasn't the greetings the crew expected, Grey's company went out to meet with the fabled heroes of their sector, there was interesting chatter as this was the first time any of them had seen the legends themselves.

Christine and Dominic climbed off of their fighters to meet with Grey, their fellow squad mates stayed behind to check their fighters and frames, the elevator opened and Grey strode forward to meet two old friends. "So it's been a long time hasn't it Grey."

The trio met in the middle of the bay, Grey shook hands with Dominic and hugged his old friend Christine the three hadn't spoken since their deployment over a year ago, now it was like an old family back together.

Grey happily replied. "Yeah it has, so you two are the fabled heroes of Novara now?"

The trio laughed at the comment and went on to reminisce of the good old days and how they had so much to catch up on.

While the trio caught up the company had an interesting day, they were now heading to a mysterious object that will send them thousands of light years away into unknown territory and they now have three full squads of Venerators, the company seemed happy, they had never flown on ships except gunships, but this had been a new experience for them, the UNSC had their backs and the new gear they had all received would help.

Captain Karl Norah, 151st company stood at the port side observation deck, he stood watching as they finished their orbital run, the approach to the mysterious object at Sigma 314, the crew had planned on reaching the object before long.

Karl had always been a Venerator from the First Blood operation, he was with his platoon when he had first met Grey, and the two had served together for the past year in their war against the Covenant, Grey had first asked him to be second in command when their company was first founded he couldn't decline, the year after their founding he had learnt to trust his commander, now they were going again into the unknown, Karl watched as the ship began its transition into slip-space.

Transition into slip-space was relatively smooth as the ship entered the tunnel of subspace energy, the 151st company unpacked and set their bunks up, the journey to Sigma 314 was to take a couple of hours and from there to where ever the relay went and at least they could catch up on some decent sleep.

Jordan Hartman the Gunnery Sergeant and field chef had his duties in reporting to the Major as well as the captain, Jordan set up his technical gear as he started to disentangle some wires, the ships machine shop appealed to him, the fact that the UNSC had now been able to back the Militia surprised them all, most of the colony believed themselves independent from the sphere of influence but this had been proven wrong, when the people needed the Venerators.

2 hours later

The trip was relatively uneventful; the Navy pilots prepping their flight gear had been informed of the new EVA combat suit provided by ONI were for the specialist Venerators that had joined them, the large hulking figure stood at 3.5M high, the Exoskeleton suit was an impressive view, 2 shoulder mounted Galilean lasers, 4 guided Scorcher Anti-ship missile pods, 1 Heavy Vulcan machine gun with auto-cannon and an in built reflector shield, the walking tank had been designed with an AI specifically for one specialist.

Rey 0159, the only pilot successful in using the EVA-MA.09-V or called Evan because of the AI installed into the suit that called herself by that name, the suit had been in his service for over 1 year, but the constant refits and upgrades had completely changed the design, but in all likeness he still stuck with her, Rey had been scouted for the EVA-MA program to help with newer Venerators EVA fighters, he accepted and was welcomed, now he had the chance to explore the new refit with Evan.

The predecessor HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark I Prototype Armor Defense System was a similar type of armored exoskeleton, the original had sadly failed to become active and was destroyed in accordance to Cole Protocol, this design had implemented a vastly superior technology and equipment, the shape had been fitted as human while the surrounding parts were added on top, the ONI had used the original schematics in its production but quickly adapted the venerators armor, thus rendering its level much more effective.

As the ship passed the time, Captain Graves sat in his quarters, he had been reviewing reports on recent actions on the front, ONI had passed news that Earth and the inner colonies had started to repair the damage caused during the war, and nearly a tenth now remained of the UNSC.

He sighed, the years of sacrifices made and of all the innocents lost, it had finally paid off, the UNSC had finally found some sense of peace.

The sound of the intercom beeped. "Captain, we are coming out of slip-space near the relay in five."

He replied. "Acknowledged Tanya"

The ship entered real space, the blue glow shaking off and rippling, the crew bustled about as they approached the active relay, Graves ordered the ship to make final preparation for the jump, the company had also acknowledged.

Valerie walked down the hallway to the bridge, upon her entering captain Graves had been in a cautious manner to get his frigate prepared, the sudden appearance of the ships AI Tanya a young woman who was dressed as a young dancer with long silvery hair, the young lady hovered about sometimes twirling while no one looked, she had been giving standard reports of the object. "Sir it's just as they said, relay is active."

Valerie walked to the captain and asked. "Captain I presume we reached our destination?"

Graves nodded to the screen displaying the relay, the two then moved to one of the read outs, Valerie gave her the calculations for the appropriate jump. "The jump is simple we need to just run alongside the relay and it does it for us."

The concept was simple but Graves wasn't sure, the relay jump looked good but he didn't know why it felt dangerous, he ordered a fast run alongside the relay and told them to alert the rest of the crew for the jump, Graves spoke to Tanya to scan the region once they came through.

They approached the relay at maximum speed, then running alongside it, the ship accelerated, and then blinding energy enveloped the ship slinging it forwards at beyond FTL speeds.


	6. Cameo Special

This is a cameo for Julian Yeoman- OC -please note.

BTW this is relevant to the story it has some weight to the story.

There is no type of actual romance. I will explain below, at the end.

This is for a friend…

/When I Promised/ -09/05/2551-

The cool sea breeze fills the air, the night was coming and the tide recedes. She walks along the white sandy sea, the sun had set and now the night reigns free, and the cool sea breeze.

The sea, the sand, the beach… the familiar dream, the familiar memory, she looks across the sea of sand and continues to walk her nostalgic past.

She watches the path become her past, the path is lit by the moons light, she looks upon sand, there are footprints in the sand, and she is awakened from her trance by a phantom hand, followed by the sight of a forgotten face.

The two now smile as they walk the path, no words are exchanged, and they cannot grasp each other's hands, though they embrace the memory of their lives long since passed. The two phantoms of the past now pass her present, she watches the happy family of two, and remember what had been lost, her sadness now fills the path, and for the one she once called her brother.

They walk along the sandy path, along the reflections of the calm sea, and she follows the phantom prints along the beach, to the end of a dream. They reach the end, by and old but strong tree, the phantoms are gone and the dream, she lies on the ground to remember what it had been.

She stares upon the starry night with the cover of the moonlight, her brother's phantom now sits on his knees, he is also looking up at the starry sea, and he turns to face her and asks.

"Can you promise me something?" she replies, to phantom of her past. "Sure, what is it?"

"When I leave and you're alone, can you wait for me?"

"Why?"

He smiles, the night was now filled with star light, he looks almost at peace.

"Because I know I'm going to die."

The night returns, her heart aches, she sits back up to see his place… there it sat a small grave.

-SV- 0049 – Eric Yeoman

Brother, officer, the one who had served his duty to his end, may he rest in peace.

"Together as brothers and then to ashes, we are together once more."

2553/09/11


	7. CH3

CH2.5

Yeah I know that the cameo was before the actual chapter, but don't worry.

Please to all those who read my story, the chapters are being overhauled.

So there are updates whenever but I have Preliminary exams… might take some time.

A minute passed as they were shot out of the relays grasp, the entire ship suddenly halted, Graves and most of the crew felt the return of normal space. The captain looked around the bridge to check on any external damage taken in the initial jump, from what he could see, the Jump was successful either than a few crewmen knocked off their feet.

The status over the ship reported no injuries, Graves had feared that something would have gone wrong, he then went to ask Tanya for the scan of the ship "Tanya what's our situation?"

She turned to face him with a smile and replied in her usual cheery accent. "The jump was good but the engines have been over charged some parts weren't prepared for the energy surge, either than that the system I have scanned shows that there is some activity in the nearby star systems, nothing else commander." Graves felt relieved. "Good keep me posted."

Graves knew that being blind and at sub-light speeds were not the best things to have when entering unknown space, he was just happy now they hadn't alerted anyone, or in this case bumped into anyone.

Tanya reappeared a few minutes with an external report. "The external sensors have done a full sweep, the relay that just sent us over this far had over charged the barriers, we can't activate cloaking for another half an hour and the same could be said for the FTL 1, 2, 3, and 4 engines, it'll take a while."

"The ship needs to get back up to combat status ASAP; can you call up the company engineers to help?" Graves asked.

"Of course sir, calling Jordan Hartman and his engineers now." Tanya then disappeared.

Graves turned his attention back to the view, the sight of the nearby star glowed, he could only wonder what was yet to come, the expedition into the unknown depths of space for ONI wasn't something he would do every day, especially this far out.

He knew the assignment for the deep space exploration and the search for Forerunner technology, but there had other alternatives than sending a prototype Stealth frigate.

"What was it?"

CREW DECK 13:30

The crew deck was a mess; most of the engineers were new, excluding Jordan and his team. The techs were originally sent over from the colonial training academies, they weren't actual professionals just whoever the UNSC could find in the remaining population since the war, they usually did the menial tasks of the regulators and systems engineering but they never worked in complex field tasks.

Jordan and his team now had to teach the techs the proper way of engineering, even though the ship was state-of-the-art and the only most advanced it hadn't the best technical staff, which had a rather interesting sense of irony.

Karl meanwhile was drilling in the ships gym; he had been there since they had arrived, it was the first thing he always did, it was also him and most of the others, the company had nothing better to do, they had already cleaned their rifles and done the weapons field strip over five times.

The sparring gym was the only thing most of the companies had to do, the companies themselves were: 343rd Company of Novara ODST, 49th Airborne Shock Troops and of course themselves as the 151st Marines.

Practically all of the companies were decorated veteran units, and had survived the whole campaign against the Covenant, the reason for three of the most veteran companies together was unknown.

Karl was now sparring with some of the Shock troopers, they proved themselves good, but he wanted to know how well, against a Venerator, though the same attitudes from the average ODST to the Nova sector is the same. UNSC ODST and SPARTAN II have had the tensions of competing for recognition and here it no different.

Down in the Hangar 13:50

Melissa Pham, did a recheck on all the ships internal clocks, the jump the ship took actually knocked a few bolts back, and her new sabre had to be up to scratch, she didn't want to be left hanging while someone took pot shots at her.

She knew what it was like in side of a ship that didn't really work, the _Longan_ was lost when the EM wave struck, Michi her AI amazingly survived thanks to the shielding on the ship and self-storage device, but the crew and she were stuck onboard. It took a few hours but she and the others managed to a way to open the door, they had to take a walk in space just to get home, but thanks to the _Few and None_ they made it back.

Now she was stationed aboard the _Aspire_ because of her insane feat, the Militia would've court martialled her for the amount of damage that was caused, but the HIGHCOM of Anomia were glassed when the Covenant came, so she was tried by the other surviving commanders and Captain Vance, she was cleared of all charges, and sent back on the field piloting pelicans.

She really didn't like it at first, but the amount of desperation the colonists and Militia had suffered from took over her pride, she had to get as many to safety, the following campaign that followed was bloody, she witnessed more than she ever wanted to, now she was glad to be somewhere else.

The first time in almost 1 year since she had been given a new set of wings and a promotion, she had been happy to fly the new sabre's, they represented how far the UNSC forces had actually come from the Covenant war.

Since the fall of Reach and the near destruction of Earth, the UNSC forces had been desperate to get level with the rise of the Separatists faction of Elites. UNSC started rapid construction of new fighters and ships, the light wave barriers from the Hypress development division had been given generous amounts of resources to develop new shields, both for projectile and energy, though it would take longer than they wanted, it was necessary to get the shields properly functioning rather than risk it.

She sighed, the war had only ended over a month ago but the UNSC was still mopping up the loyalists in the outer colonies, and the Venerator project had been successful, the launch of the mysterious project Venerator that the UNSC had named them.

She hadn't known much about them, either than the un-killable WMDs of the UNSC, they seemed to wage a relentless war against the Covenant during the last years of the war; the personnel made up of them were originally from Nova Stratus, taken as children and used to create them.

She felt sad at the thought of using children as a means of fighting, but then again most of the Militia forces were just kids, and that was including her friends and a some of the higher ranked, she couldn't help but feel that they had lost much more than just family though.

She shook the thought out, right now she had work to do, and thinking about the Covenant war wasn't going to help speed up the diagnostics, she burrowed herself in her work again.

Mess hall 2 hours later

Karl finished his sparring with the other members of the Companies; he won for the most part, but was impressed how rigorously they trained. 'Those boys have room for improvement, but I can't say I wouldn't have them watching my back, good bunch those guys.'

Karl was in the mess hall, most of the crew and Marines had joined for the night's dinner, Karl and a few new guys he met were sharing a table.

One was a marine named Jonathan Reyes, Karl met with him in the cafeteria line, and for being who he was Karl wasn't surprised that the marine was bumbling about with what he was saying just like a kid meeting the very hero they wanted to be. It was no surprise though, UNSC had made the Venerators take the spot light to boost morale since the loss of the Spartan II's, and most Militia forces had seen Karl in action.

He had never understood why they had to single him out as a high ranking unit within the Venerator ranks, but it was ability to command, the Militia forces that had been left to believe that he could do nearly impossible things.

Another fellow was an ODST named Thom, the young man was quiet unless he didn't want to be, his nick name was 'BOY' it was marked on his name tag, either it was an old school name or some family one, he wasn't too sure. But from what he could see in Boy was familiar, the young man had lost his family during the first assault on Anomia, he'd been fighting the Covenant ever since. Like many he had gone through the war with suicidal belief that he could take as many as he could, though he never did get KIA he stayed around because he nowhere left to go.

The next was a young lieutenant named Julian Yeoman, her family was alive mostly, and her older brother was a Venerator KIA some time back in the war. But the unit was never recovered or recorded, he and the others weren't capable of identifying who it had been though, the records had been sealed off by ONI and civil security. Even though Julian had lost her brother to the Venerator program she seemed to respect them, she did speak at times if asked but never spoke about.

At another table Grey and his old family were eating dinner, they had also brought most of the others under their command with them.

Grey could see the newer face of Venerators of second and third generations, each were younger than them, and each had yet to fully serve command, the journey through the relay to this part of space seemed like an adventure for the younger ones, while to him and the first generation, it was just another day at work.

15:39

Meanwhile on the bridge, a few active techs and crewmen stayed to continue bridge work; Graves meanwhile was looking at different star maps from the pulse signals they had sent out, he noticed the power signatures from different stars systems.

But what seemed to get his attention was that each system had some form of life, he wasn't sure why ONI had sent them this far to scout out other alien species, but it felt more than just scouting, the maps from the Cortex back on Anomia suggested there to be some type of beacon located on one of these worlds.

But from the star charts and how old the position of each originally detailed, it would take a couple of days to figure which one it was, and that's where he had suspicions. 'ONI knows that there's other life out here, so why send us out, there was also probes SECIII had sent previously but weren't sent looking for the beacon.'

Tanya had been working to find the beacon as fast as she could, but the fact that each of the planet's surfaces was completely altered by the new inhabitants, it was proving difficult to locate, she estimated the same amount of time narrowed down to at least a few hours each, while also scanning she was updating all her translation and decryption software to deal with this new species technology.

She had noticed that much of these species were under a single intergalactic government called the Citadel council, though on closer inspection she had noticed a number of interesting events and situations within their space. There had been a recent increase on forces within the borders of their space mainly here; the area designated as the Phil'ious Cluster, the reports indicated a discovery to a massive and ancient installation in a system called Praxis Amphora.

Tanya had a sure idea what the installation was, but she couldn't just jump there on assumption, she decided to weigh this one out with a few of the other AI currently residing with the IVI (151), the assignment from ONI had also gotten on her to look into list. But right now she had to finish the scans and all systems check. NEXT


	8. Special: Ghosts of Onyx

GHOSTS AND MEMORIES

(This has been rewritten.)

To all my readers: **World of Warcraft: Halo's Call. **Has taken the characters they will be appearing much later now, and in ME:1 so please keep in mind, as these characters are to be removed from this story.

THIS IS AU! Yes there is now names made up of the Spartan team Katana and the mysterious pods

Zeta Doradus System, Onyx, shield world

2552 November 5

Less than a week had passed since the battle of Onyx and the loss of Kurt and the others, and less than a week they had travelled around the mysterious shield world.

A small group of people were walking in the forest of the artificial world, beautiful and majestic as it had seemed, it was unknown to them.

A figure appeared, black with grey she walked with the group surveying and studying the mysterious world around her, her name was Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, and she was the founder of project SPARTAN-II as well as the developer in the MJOLNIR armor, Catherine was at least sixty years old, being also one of the most experienced person in the group, she was leading them to a structure not far from the in the distance.

Then five figures appeared from the shrub, blue team had just finished scouting out the structure, the tallest was Lieutenant, Junior Grade Frederic-104, Fred had been teaching the new members of blue team Ash, Olivia, Mark, which had now become part of his command, while Red team which was Katana had stayed with the main body.

Fred walked over to Dr. Halsey and reported. "Ma'am, we searched the structure, though we don't know much it seemed clean and empty but there's a door that seems to lead deeper into some kind of chamber, the door though is locked, either than that, no significance."

Halsey began to think what it might be; she faced Fred again and said. "There isn't much chance we'll find another structure out here for a while and we need to restock on supplies."

Fred knew she was right, they had been walking in a straight line for the past month, and they were a little short on water, the night stop seemed appropriate. "Okay, Tom, Lucy, will go along with the Dr. and Mendez, Ash, you'll form a perimeter with Olivia and Mark around the structure, the rest of us will go looking for a water supply and food." With that said the group dispersed.

A few hours later

The sun never sets inside the Micro Dyson Sphere so where ever the group could find shelter to rest they took it, and now they had found the Forerunner building it meant that they could rest for a bit before moving on.

Ash and the others on the perimeter had finished the patrol, they headed back in, the winding corridors and the main chambers, the rooms inside were all covered in the same patterns and the floor seemed a little dusty but in all, the place was clean, Ash walked the length of the room to where Fred and the other Spartans had gathered.

Fred and Red team had found a river that ran in a gulch down below from where they were, and there were some bushes with berries and a fruit, the berries were clean and the fruit, though oddly shaped and colored.

Halsey was at the locked door seeing if she could crack the lock, while he noticed that Tom and Lucy the eldest Spartan III were together in a separate room, Ash always wondered if it was even possible the two could actually fall in love, though it wasn't his place to ask or judge, he was actually happy the two were together.

Katana usually kept to themselves and to Blue team, Liam-G210 the leader of Red team, Liam and Ash have a history to go with their rivalry, Liam is a determined leader and straight forward, he also shares the same kind of closeness to his squad, he prefers to keep the team in check and always alert which makes them as formidable rivals.

The room had also some other new members, two ONI agents who had been stationed at the base, and one young marine Kim Li, the ONI agents were, Samantha D she wouldn't release her last name, and her assistant, Alvin K, the two were supposedly investigating the structure in zone 67 a few years back, something had happened and the two were sealed in the pods, the marine who had scouted tried to escape but was also captured.

The ONI agents sat together for the most part, avoiding any talks with the rest unless it was with Halsey or Mendez, meanwhile Kim had Mendez running him through his paces in the morning, though Kim didn't mind, he was just happy to be alive.

The group gathered up for that night, few words were exchanged about what to do and where to go, Halsey seemed to enjoy the sight of the Spartans like they were family, though being the most powerful living soldiers in existence, they needed some time to talk as well.

Because of the constant daylight they had to rely on the HUD time setting or clock on Dr. Halsey's laptop, the Spartans took turns on lookout for the sleep cycle even though the Halsey reassured them that they were completely safe, the group went to sleep.

The next day

Time 06.55AM November 6

The morning was the usual although being in a sheltered place instead of open air, the group woke to find Halsey had gone missing and that the ONI agents with Kim, the locked door was now open and a cool breeze was flowing in.

Fred quickly gathered the teams and ordered a search within the mysterious room, the path had led them to a hallway which led to a massive tunnel, it stretched as far as anyone could see, the other path led to another room, the room looked the same as the one they slept in, but the differences were that is had brighter lighting and had platforms, the group made their way down a spiral stair case it then led to another stretched hallway, it finally ended at a door, they couldn't hear much but the floor around them was vibrating.

Mendez and the group got ready, he pushed the icon on the door and it opened, the team looked to find, a chamber, a large chamber in fact this had to be the most largest one they had seen, the room stretched for what could be kilometers, and in the center of the chamber stood an sphere, it was large and glowed in its center with vibrant energy, the group walked onto what was a transparent walkway with some metallic structuring, it led across to the center of the chamber with the mystery object.

At the end was a full circle surrounding it, across the circle it had seven pillars each facing inwards and each that connected with the object, as the group got ever closer they made out four figures, Halsey and the ONI agents and private Kim.

The small breakaway group turned to face them, Kim greeted with a tired. "Good morning, sorry about the mess." He pointed to a pile of wire connecting a console with Dr. Halsey's laptop.

Halsey was working away, she was concentrating on what was there she quickly tapped in a few things then moving away from the console. "Welcome everyone; this is our ticket out of here." The sphere glowed brighter form her working. And then the sphere contracted into a whitish portal of slip-space energy.

Kurt asked. "What is it?"

"A simple explanation, and a rather complex quantum theory calculation, this is what the forerunners call a slip-space hub, it was originally designed to transport them from one of the other Dyson' spheres to a local hub after whatever was to occur." She continued typing and calculating the setting of their departure was, then continued.

"There are a number of factors involved with us going through so I'm attempting to create a simple gateway for us to jump through, as risky as it sounds it is the only way through."

The portal slowly began to shimmer and then calm, the now gateway was complete, capable of sending anyone and anything across space and time to the predestinated location.

"So I guess we step in?" Liam asked.

"Who wants to go first?" Linda asked.

They looked at each other and waited; their path will be leading them to a new world, one there is no longer the reality of technology… but magic.

**World of Warcraft: Halo's Call: Has taken this story area, please wait another four chapters for this to occur.**


	9. CH4

This is technically 2.75 of the original set, sorry for the confusion

CH2.75

Prepare for the Codex updates…

Yes this is badly written, but hey here's Liara

Praxis Amphora, Phil'ious Cluster

The world of Amphora, the most prominent producer in resources, the world is a lush green world is plentiful of flora, though with a mostly grassland and some stretches of forests, with beautiful lakes, rivers, mountainous peaks, the world of Amphora is seen as a haven.

There are cavernous trenches from previous mining operations and large gully's due to the high amounts of drilling involved, though this is considered acceptable the local population has had mixed opinions about continuous mining on their home world.

2531 was when Amphora had officially been founded, with a population of 49 million; the world of Amphora now resides as an independent world with a new productive economy and proper security since.

Amphora is situated in a widely mineral rich system, though because of this, the rush tap into this gold mine was short lived, the colonizing of Amphora was to ensure a living space for the miners and the corporations to colonize the star cluster.

But in the past few decades there were high risks involved with travelling into the edge of the Terminus systems, trade was difficult if not impossible, and after 12 changes in the corporate heads due to corruption, and the constant pirate and slaver attacks, caused the entire colony to drop to its foundation. But after the last 25 years the colony had returned to stand upon its own.

2553 the recent discovery of a massive underground structure during mining near a lake uncovered it buried 75 feet below the bank, and the new discovery had caused a tantamount of excitement amongst the inhabitants of Amphora. The structure had been studied by local archeologists suggesting it had been there since the Protheans, though this had been merely assumptions there was no definite answer.

With this, the new discovery had reached the ears of nearly every cluster and star port surrounding theirs; the citadel had responded by sending a small patrol to hold the structure so a proper team could be sent along to research and evaluate the structures authentication. Amongst the team was an Asari named Liara T'soni, she was an expert with understanding Prothean, and had been recently working at the ruins of Therum. At first the discovery had excited her; the discovery of such a facility was rare and one intact had been even more so, though it wasn't until she and the other researchers began that they found more than what they had planned for.

Amphora dig site Unknown structure three months prior to 314 incident

The archeological team along with the science team had found that the structure had no significance to anything like the Protheans, she had the most difficult trying to understand what she was even looking at, the structures had been through a number of scans and sampling and from what they found was the structure had been in existence since 150,000 years.

This revelation had shocked them, there was some species even older than the Protheans that had been there, but another noticeable difference was the architecture and the power source, the energy used detected to trace of element zero. Though it had been hard to imagine the lack of element zero, the team continued to burrow themselves into trying to understand the ancient technology.

The weeks went by until they reached a chamber at the heart, the core or what they assumed was the core was a 250 meter diameter disc and in the center of it was a core of energy. The scientists had never understood at what the core had composed, but even so they had found a remarkable item, the core had been of pure subspace fields and energy capable of manipulating the matter of objects and physical matter.

The discovery had been interesting but they had barely scratched the surface of who ever had constructed it, the following days had made a handful of other interesting marks, the control panel or control sphere they had found controlled the field and how it manipulated objects. One scientist had a theory that it could open subspace portals and gateways, capable of sending objects across space faster than that of the relays and FTL. The innovation behind such a device had a significant effect, the limitless possibilities that had now became available.

But the control had a type of genetic IFF to identify who and what could access to the controls, the team had attempted to gain control through manipulation of the controls and hacking but none had been successful, the team gave up after three weeks of unsatisfactory results. The team had been only sure of this, without a matching genetic code of whoever constructed the facility or those who share similar genes to these species there was no possible chance of actually accessing the technology.

Now all they could do was look on what had been left inside the structure and study the remaining artifacts. There was nothing more than teams bustling through the structure until they found another interesting find, this one was much less elaborate, a large glowing icon on one level had revealed a back chamber within the facility, the team had stumbled on a data module of sorts kept within the facility.

The research team called to the Citadel for recovery of the artifact, the council agreed to send a team and escorts; they had pulled a few Spectres to oversee the transport back to the Citadel. Though the thought of having the council Spectres guarding such a minor thing made the research teams confused; the council had rarely sent Spectres for simple transportation errands or security.

But this had also reassured the scientists that the transfer wouldn't get stolen or go mysteriously missing, but this still had seemed strange to Liara, the reasons for sending Spectres to simply get a small data module isn't usually their job. And the fact that there had been a scout fleet escorting it as well seemed more than just a simple security measure.

High orbit above Amphora, aboard the cruiser _Invictus Ius Iurandum_

Nihlus Kyrick stared out to the planet below on the bridge with his fellow spectre Varrius Kelis, the two had met a few days back on their assignment on Illium, Varrius had been hunting down supposed corruption charges with a dozen officials and managers within the trade and development within the Illium markets about a mysterious racket, the two had bumped into each other on separate missions and ironically had been looking for the same people.

They had completed the task after a few days and were waiting to head back to Citadel space until a priority call had come through; the dig site on Amphora within the Phil'ious cluster had revealed a new and interesting find within the mysterious alien structure the researchers had been working at, there had been a type of data core that needed transport, the official reason for the two was because they were conveniently nearby and both were heading back to the citadel.

Though the other agenda for being there had been hidden to any but the top most officials, the recent access into the mysterious facility had revealed a star chart of instillations on the other side of a dormant relay. The relay had been marked as 314 was decided to be left dormant because of the threat of unknown species and what may occur since the Rachni, though the relay mission had been pending the council decided a small risk involved with sending them over, specifically to locate the other installation.

But to the general public it would seem only a scouting mission for new and more habitable planets or resources, there also had been a asari spectre who had also volunteered for the mission, but she was already planet side and tasked with another assignment, the council wanted nothing more than simple search mission for the installation and whatever else that could be on the other side.

Though this was actually performed by the Turian Hierarchy to explore, the other council species had no part yet to whatever could be on the other side.

The team being assembled was mostly the original science team which had been doing research on the alien structure and a fleet of 7 ships, the fleet will consist of mostly frigates and a cruiser and be sent over on the jump.

The core was going to be sent along in a separate convoy, the official documentation was the core would arrive on the citadel was going to be guarded by the asari spectre, while the expedition was to be set in motion with Nihlus and Varrius, but Varrius decided to stay behind, he was in need of a break.

Though it was a risk, the Turian Hierarchy made sure all necessary precautions were to be taken, this included one of their best, this was just a guarantee the mission into unknown space didn't end in disaster, or the introduction of another dangerous species, but in case there is a problem another two spectres can respond.

3days and 15 hours before departure

/Aspire/ target destination reached

/ UNSC military standard 14:00 2554.1.17 /

After 2 days of transit the _Aspire _had reached her destination, the Phil'ious cluster, a single day away from their starting point. Graves ordered the jump to the world of Amphora because of what Tanya had uncovered, the world was a mineral jackpot, but that wasn't the reason. There had been a recent discovery of an ancient structure, and the ancient structure was alien to these council species because it had no significance of the ancient species they knew as the 'Protheans' and the fact that Tanya had run the matching glyphs and symbols.

There was now no doubt that the structure was Forerunner, but there was just one problem, as Tanya and the other AI had access to the 'Extranet' they learnt that the Citadel had been secretly planning to jump forces into relay they had just come through.

Now there was little time, the relic was being moved and ONI wanted it retrieved, and the fact that there was an alien race or two in the mix hadn't helped.

They had to be extremely careful; the crew on the other hand was tense, the fact that another alien species was on approach to their home world didn't put their minds at ease.

But the mission had to come first, the retrieval of the artifact was first, and then the security issue was up to Nova Stratus, but to ensure the safety of core worlds Graves had decided to send a message to command on Anomia to alert HIGHCOM and get security force to secure the relay.

Right now the crews focus was towards the mission.

Down in the Hangar Bay 15:30

The insertion team was being prepped, four hawks and two pelicans and two warthogs with a cobra rail-tank were being geared with stealth equipment, radar jammers and optical flares as well as EMP grenades and emitters.

Karl and his squad were the best at shock and awe, and the best at running people into the ground, he had chosen five of the most able, while Grey had suited up his team for the holding their ground with Hazard ops gear, Grey was unsure, the mission demanded a lot, and giving up their ability to fight for their home world was nearly too much.

'God, damn, why is it now we rebuild and all it gets is torn down by these f****** after all that was lost, this better be damn worth the effort.'

There was little time, whether or not these aliens were hostile wasn't the question, it was how this would play out that determined the end result. And Grey knew this as well as the whole crew, show them something new and it usually gets their attention.

XXXXX

Rey was suiting up his gear on his assault armored frame, the mission had limited his heavy weapons capabilities and he was forced only to use concussion launcher and guided missiles as heavy gear, he did have a new weapon though; the Vulcan LF01 was a rapid fire machinegun that looked similarly to the M247H MG but didn't have the ammo drum on the bottom and it was mounted by the humanoid arms of his suit.

Rey had in no part of his mind thought about what he was going to face, he was used to being a lethal killing machine, even though he had an armored walking tank as his gear.

The sudden blaring of alerts caught the ships attention, it was time to go, Rey suited up connecting his neural implants to the suit, and he and Evan became one.

"Are you ready?" She asked. "Why wouldn't I be, the mission demands for us to go in and get out."

"Yes, but can you get it done without me?" Rey sarcastically replied. "Oh no of course I can't finish a single mission without you." Evan laughed. "I never knew you had a sense of humor."

XXXXX

Rey moved the MA-Evan for planetary drop, as did the insertion teams, Grey and Karl got their teams aboard the pelicans while the albatross loaded the cobra onboard, the deck was cleared and the flight crews were ready all they needed was the go ahead.

XXXXX

15:00

On the bridge, Graves made sure the Aspire was ready to make transition, green lights across the board from Tanya and they were off. "Sir, all checks are complete, beginning slip-space jump in five, four, three, two… one."

The Aspire vanished into a swirling white vortex of light and leaving no trace for any to find.

XXXXX


	10. CH5

CH2.85 or 9

Please tell me if there are problems or something too tired to fix at this point please not that other characters are also going to start their appearances with ND3R50N not saying who.

Phil'ious Cluster 15:30

/UNSC Military Calendar/ 17/1/2554

A small flash of light appeared over the planet of Amphora, and coming through it was a black smooth yet boxy shaped, the vessel Aspire appeared like a shadow, the ship activated its stealth field as it approached the low orbit of Amphora.

And from the hangar bay of the Aspire came six smaller boxy vessels, though as differently shaped they were all stealth painted covered and well beyond undetectable from the planets inhabitants. Though Rey doubted the sight and sounds of roaring engines and flying lights wouldn't get as much notice, the planet inhabitants from the briefing said that they were incapable of knowing how to chase UNSC tech because of heavy reliance on their Element Zero technology, which seemed strange for such an advanced mix of species.

But it didn't matter because if they couldn't chase the teams descent onto the planet then it was all the better. Right now their approached was masked thanks to that and the EMP emitters placed over the teams pelicans and hawks, though most of this was based upon the Covenant tech, it didn't crash the ships electronics but actually emitted a small bubble around the ships, and all of the teams had EM shielding for the insertion on the planet.

There was now less than 50klicks to the LZ the teams were restless, it was the same with Karl, he was never in a rush but with the threat of Nova Stratus from these aliens he wasn't willing to wait and see what happens if the worlds are burning when they got back.

But he kept his cool, there was a mission ahead and he needed to be calm.

As the teams reached their target they could see the shape of the structure, slightly different in geometrics but the same style of architecture and aesthetics in it as the Forerunner Cortex back on Anomia.

XXXXX

(Does this seem familiar?)

Rally point Alpha 16:00

The pelicans had reached their drop point, a grassy field next to a forest of lush green trees, the team disembarked, Karl and Grey set their teams in 4x4 perimeter spread and unloaded their hogs and the cobra, Rey also disembarked the MA-Evan and had already gone ahead using the hover jets to go around the structure.

The plan was simple get in and get the Core and recover any data that the scientists there have gathered, nothing else but there were complications, the structure was reinforced like a firebase and the chances of engagement was high.

The last thing Karl and Grey needed was a lack of fire support, the cobra they brought along was to help remove any heavy fortifications or anything bigger than a hog. And the reason for Rey was their supplemental air support and ground, the hawks aren't capable of taking that many hits from enemy mass accelerator tech, because they didn't have shields.

The teams drove themselves 25km thorough the forests until they reached a safe zone to place each one, they began unloading their gear from the trailers attached to the hogs and made sure everything was set. The hogs they brought were modified with attached trailers integrated in the rear for more space for passengers and gear.

Now moving through the moist green shrubs of the forest, Karl could smell the fresh air and rich soil of the ground, it reminded him of home. 'Huh, home now that's a word I usually never use.'

They continued to march quietly through the forests until they could see the top of the Forerunner base, and carefully crept about ready for their strike. Karl was sitting along the ground, he had been watching the patrols go along their routines for the past ten minutes, yet he had never seen the some alien's species faces, but usually parts, as they had mostly covered their bodies with armor or a full body suit.

It didn't necessarily matter at this point, the strike was about to begin, the teams began to spread along the lengths of the complex. There weren't many guards so removing them would be easy, and the sentries at the base themselves were easy picking for the heavy linear Sniper they had brought along.

Grey and an ODST from the 343rd were stalking a pair of guards, they were both armored and suited, but this wasn't going to discourage them from their prey. Grey snuck about, as the two approached his hiding spot not too far from the path, he picked out a small rock and took a shot at the helmet of one.

It struck and bounced off hard enough to get their attention, Grey began to run through the shrubs as the two pursued their annoyance, they did radio in but unwittingly didn't check for the EM fields that were jamming them.

The two stopped as they reached a small patch of cleared forests and paused, they couldn't see anyone or anything either than the ground and the trees. Then silently matte black figures appeared behind the two, at once both turned but were too late, Grey and the ODST charged into the guards.

Grey stuck an knife in what seemed like the wind pipe of one, it gurgled as blue blood came gushed out onto the knife, the other ODST had smacked the other with the butt of his SMG and thrown him to the ground he unloaded a few silenced rounds into the face plate just to be sure, the rush of the guards there were finished in less than nine seconds as they dragged the bodies out of view.

It was the same with the rest of the patrols as Karl and Grey teams removed eight patrols in less than five minutes, but there was one last thing that needed doing. Rey had set himself up in position overlooking the length of the base; it was relatively easy to distinguish each objective considering the fact that most of the vehicles and any heavier vessels were in a neat pile near the rear and tanks of gases not too far from each vehicle it made his job so much simpler.

M149 Magellan RCL was loaded and now all he needed to do was wait for the signal to fire from either Karl or Grey. Evan was quiet knowing Rey well it was no time to be talking during the mission it was one thing that Evan knew best. Evan was originally called 'Evangelical' but she never like the actual word but she did describe it, she always wanted to be first to the fight and gave a fight to the end, but only when Rey needed to, this was one of the things she liked about Rey.

The two waited, and suddenly the signal came, a green light from Rey's HUD and he lowered the M149 to the nearest and biggest targets in sight.

The things that you never would actually think you could hear in a forest were the sound of thunder and lightning, but that depended if the thunder was to strike in the same place, more than twice. Because if it did there was one thing for you could do.

And this was screaming, because that was the last thing the crews on the shuttles could do when the M149 105mm HE rounds tore apart the shuttle from the cockpit to the aft. A flaming wreck was all that was left of the shuttle as well as panicking guards as a hail storm of hyper sonic Vulcan rounds peppered the base, the guards tried to get a sense of order in the amount of chaos, but this was nearly impossible with artillery rounds and bullets ripping them apart.

Some of the guards on the towers attempted to locate the shots and the area from where they came, but they never got beyond the scope as sniper fire from Grey made short work of the sentries, though they had shields the linear rifle was designed to fire rounds large enough to blow apart Covenant tanks as well as energy shields and theirs was no different.

As the chaos over the base continued Karl and his squad made their way into the base, it was until they entered that Rey stopped firing and Grey squad set their perimeter up around the base. Rey moved from his hiding spot as the cobra rail tank took over his position for support; he jumped Evan to link up with Karl so they could enter the structure together.

Grey was cleaning up the base while Rey and Karl began their sweep to the interior of the structure, though Grey preferred for staying outside, he rather liked open spaces than the corridors of buildings. He had ordered for the hogs to the base and a secure perimeter in case of any unexpected surprises.

XXXXX

16:15 (15minutes prior)

The scientists were packing away their gear as they had the ship to catch shortly but something had happened to the subspace fields that had caught their attention. The data core they had stored in their base was inactive until they tried moving it away, then it began to glow as the mysterious ball of subspace energy did.

Liara was surprised at first; the portal was opening for some unknown reason and needed attention, the team was also surprised to find the locks on the control panel were off and it had automatically been dialing in co-ordinates to the facility. The guards rushed to secure whatever was coming through, though amazed at first the team remembered first contact protocols and were now waiting for whatever may come through.

Diri'ania the asari spectre was also alerted about the sudden activation, she suited her white and dark blue armour on and checked her gear, she attached her biotic amp and was now waiting and watching the sphere as it began to pulse with more and more energy.

Then in suddenly collapsed and then reformed into a portal of swirling energy, almost knocking everyone off their feet, Diri'ania got to her feet with the others as the portal calmed.

And sure enough they could see the silhouettes of figures on the other side, coming through to greet them; it wasn't until the silhouette of one pulled through and fell to the ground with a heavy clack of metal on metal.

And soon the others followed each different coloured and shaped, and then five more without armour stepped through, but before any of the guards could approach the armoured figures stood up at rapid speeds and had weapons pointed in their direction.

The portal also had closed behind them as they had finished entering; it remained in a glass like form beneath the feet of the aliens.

The whole thing became a standoff, there were twice as many guards but the sheer size of the newcomers had Diri'ania worried, some were as big as a krogan and the others easily looked more than capable of taking them all on.

The science team attempted to approach but were discouraged at the sight of guns being drawn, at wasn't until one of the mysterious aliens attempted communications, but the translators were deciphering it before they could speak.

XXXXX

Halsey wasn't equally surprised like the others or showed her surprise as much, she remained actively passive in her complexion and just watched as the situation unfolded.

Katana and blue team as well, Tom and Lucy had their weapons trained on the nearest threats, and they restrained themselves from firing; Mendez and Kim with the ONI agents were also armed.

But the tensions had simply hung in the air, Linda and Fred had been talking over the team com and was waiting for them to take action or to defend, but one of the blue skinned female aliens attempted communications and backed away.

It was hard for deciphers and computers to make out the language, it wasn't until Halsey replied and backed away, she did this so they could understand just as quickly what they had meant.

The standoff continued for five minutes until a shockwave outside knocked everyone off their feet, and then the gunfire and following shockwaves continued. The group stood up and waited and watched as havoc erupted around them, the aliens attempted to wait as one in blue and white armour ordered the others to check what was happening.

There they sat for the remainder, until a few moments later when the entrance into the chamber exploded.

XXXXX

Rey was charging through the structure unchallenged, the few measly defences that tried to stop him didn't last long, tearing his way through he punched a hole in the guard's defences, until another mechanical suit had tried to stop him. It looked very weak and not as flexible or combat capable against Evan and himself.

Firing a wall of bullets or what seemed like bullets, Rey easily evaded and waited around the wall he activated his CQB weapons and drew out and MV knife ready to get close, as the unwitting robot knew it was going to have a very short ride.

Rey burst around the corner and sliced clean through the armour frame of the robot's torso and lifted it up and charged forwards at maximum speeds to the door of the chamber they needed to get through. M149 cannon activated as he smashed the robot into the door and fired at point blank a 105mm HE round, he quickly boosted away as the robot exploded in a flurry of shrapnel.

Karl and his team waited as Rey now entered the large chamber and scared the living ($#*) out of them.

XXXXX

The occupants of the chamber were certainly surprised to see a large armoured frame walk through the remains of the melted door. More so of Diri'ania realising there was no way they could possibly take it down, and because it looked like it belonged to the new aliens.

Halsey took it into her inspection of the suit as she realised it looked exactly like her Orion one project suit for the original Spartan program, someone had taken her designs and made them real and more than just effective.

Fred and the Spartans now were just as shocked to see a suit that looked similar to them except for the weapons and the armoured torso; it looked exactly like a Spartan.

XXXXX

Rey and Evan scanned the room, to their surprise they found not only the chamber but more than ten Spartan II-III looking back at him, he was surprised for short, Spartans were considered legendary and nearly myth like around the UNSC forces.

Rey quickly turned his attention to the aliens in the room and intimidated them as he showed the full height of the MA- suit, even though not being fully armed or prepped it easily looked daunting at the sheer size as it dwarfed the occupants.

XXXXX

Now falling in behind Rey, Karl and his team entered and just as Rey, pause at the fact they had found Spartans in the room but quickly shook of their surprise to focus on their objective, the core was sitting behind the control panel of where the aliens were standing.

Karl's team approached cautiously to the Spartans for a sit rep and a quick briefing, while the others removed weapons from the aliens who kindly surrendered, though it was intimidation there was no way of winning with all of the Spartans there and Rey.

XXXXX

Halsey was now more surprised at the sight of another Spartan with ODST following behind him, though they looked different, the Spartan looked more like a shogun of the ancient Japanese style warrior, and the ODSTs were all wearing parts of the MKV MJOLNIR armour and a mix of other parts she couldn't recognise.

But even so the team of Spartans appeared to be friendly, as the leader saluted curtly and removed his helmet to their surprise; his face was pale and had a scar that ran along the left of his chin. He reported. "Ma'am Venerator Captain Karl-0119 of Spartan V, you must be Dr Halsey I presume?"

She comprehended the words he just said. "Yes, I am Dr Halsey, but I would like to know what you meant by Spartan V?"

"Spartan V was developed in the Nova Stratus sector and has produced more than 350 Spartans of alpha generation and another 600 viable candidates, this is public knowledge and is accepted only by the citizens of Nova Stratus, well most but that is the short version." He finished and simply waved his hand to the other Spartans which were dressed in similar armoured suits not too far from the MK V MJOLNIR armour.

The meeting was short lived, Halsey would have to ask more lately right now there were Spartans and this usually meant a mission, which she asked. "What is your current objective Karl?"

Karl didn't seem too disturbed like the Spartan II if they were addressed by their names and gave the mission briefing as short and quick as possible.

"Mission is only to recover the artefact in which they are currently holding, and return back to Anomia for ONI to research the Core and necessary data from their databanks and destroy any vital research documentations of unknowns."

The Spartans grasped what Karl had said, with Fred saying. "Then let's get to work, Blue team and Katana are waiting your command, sir."

Karl remembered his rank was well above any of theirs. "Right, my team will retrieve the artefact you and your group will have to go for extraction, we have hogs outside and dust off in about ten minutes, and Rey here will guard the rear with Evan."

They nodded and began to secure their objectives.

XXXXX

Diri'ania was worried more so at the fact that a walking tank was now in the room and the guards were outnumbered and out gunned, the mysterious aliens were all talking amongst themselves, it seemed as though they had help, they had tricked them into false security and decimated the outside base and now were planning to escape with the core.

She knew better than anyone this failure was going to cost her more than just her spectre status, the council was now deciding to either wage all-out war or the Turian Hierarchy for the attack at the structure and somehow she was going to get involved.

It wasn't until the black armoured figures removed the data core and hacked the security terminals with ease, it surprised them, the team quickly pulled apart all the equipment and data without a fuss yet talking seemed nearly impossible.

'Could they have been studying us, and just waiting or was this just a coincidence?'

Diri'ania saw her window of opportunity as the armoured suit was all that was left as they forwarded out, but she needed a distraction.

Which was granted when the structure was shaken by a sudden strike form outside, the turians force which was waiting was confused about the sudden drop of communications from the dig site, they had sent a force of troops to investigate, they were dispatched by Grey and his ODST teams. Though the turians had sent them along as recon and when they hadn't reported back, spectre Varris'selis went to investigate with a much larger force.

XXXXX

Diri'ania jumped up as the sudden distraction caught the armoured suit off guard making her job much easier bolting behind the suit before it could fire she struck it with a biotic charge, it knocked the suit a few feet back, but not even enough to topple it as it began to fire at her.

The other guards in the room also took advantage against the suit by getting into cover and begin firing on the armoured suit from multiple directions.

XXXXX

Rey was not in the best of situations, the team was leaving and he was supposed to cover the rear as they escaped, though the explosion from outside had slightly distracted him it was enough for the prisoners to escape, and now they were hitting him from practically every blind spot.

And the alien in charge had some kind of telekinetic powers, she practically materialised in front of him, she slammed hard on the carapace of his suit and left a dent, though small it was obvious that she was stronger than she looked.

"Evan, we can't let them get to Karl and the others, if the complex is under attack by our friends, then we can't let them get to the extraction point the last thing we need is to be covering our backs and focusing on the front."

"Affirmative, but Rey what happens if we get captured?" Evan asked.

"Then we improvise, or we die, but then again Spartans never die."

Rey was battling the aliens hiding and striking, they were aiming for his vital points but the shields drew away their fire from hitting the critical components, Rey fought on until the asari spectre came up with a plan.

Diri'ania was waiting for another opening and knew how to bring the suit down, she signalled the other asari to hit him with their biotics and concentrate on the armour alone, she knew that the suit wasn't capable of protection against biotic powers.

As soon as Rey let up for a moment the aliens lashed out a wave of telekinetic powers against him, Evan was thrown about into the air for a few seconds but enough for the alien in charge, to jump up to his suit and knock it hard enough for him to be thrown against the door, he could only feel numbness as he blacked out.

'Evan transfer to neural uplink one-zero-one five-one and shut down.'

He signalled her through his neural interface and blacked out into unconsciousness.

XXXXX

Diri'ania was lucky at first she though the armoured suit was just going to get back up and tear her apart, but now it was definitely down and out but it was covering the entrance into the chamber, outside she could hear the fire fight and it sounded pretty bad.

But right now she was more focusing on what to do with her new prisoner, she got to her com to signal the support from outside but it seemed as though all communications were being jammed.

'Is it coming from the aliens?'

She couldn't help but take her eyes from the black armoured tank, and the more she thought about what these beings were capable of she wondered if war did break out, could they win?

XXXXX

Varris was not having a good day, the fact that the facility dropped out of com and the science team was late made him sure and sure something had gone wrong but he never had expected this.

A shell tore across from the distance and blasted apart another hole in his defence line, bits and pieces of one trooper he brought along was now scattered around him, the whole rescue had now backed itself into a grave yard.

"Sir, were being torn apart we don't have the power or firepower to take hold against them, should we fall back?" Varris was almost contemplating.

Until a roar of engines above them caught their attention, matte black armoured ships appeared and were landing over to recover the attackers at the base; this was to his surprise as they were now retreating.

"Scratch that were going to hold and wait for them to clear, get the others to form up a perimeter again and prepare to advance when they clear off, it would be better than dying and that's for sure."

The turian marines held back until the transports moved away, but this was better than simply fighting about until they all died, Varris and the marines searched the base, it was definitely bad there were bodies in corners and some from the looks of agony were set alight by the attack on the base.

But this could have been from a multiple of reasons but he was sure that whoever did this was going to pay, it wasn't until they searched the complex when they arrived at a strange sight, an armoured suit like the ones outside but much bigger than a YMIR was jammed in the doorway of the chamber.

They heard the pleas of help from those inside and began to move the suit, it took all the biotics and people to just move it beyond the door, and to Varris' surprise he had found Diri'.

"So, I thought you said you could handle yourself?" He said jokingly. "Well if you mean the armoured walking tank then yes, besides we captured the operator over there."

Diri' waved her hand to the figure strapped down and unconscious on a bench, he was being tended to by the scientists, who were studying his physical form.

"Strange, the pilot was young, much more so but the scientists insisted we shouldn't harm him, saying he was too valuable to their research on the ancient structure, something about DNA and the gene lock on the tech. But that aside I decided to keep him alive because of what he knows and what he is, the science team got one clear scan of his body… and well they say he's augmented, drastically from the most extreme parts, he's more than hard to kill."

"How's that possible he's as tall as me and stronger than a krogan, those augmentations would have had to have been extensive."

"Well they are and they have been made to whatever this person was once, I'll have to report this and the loss of the data core, though the council will have to act or not I don't know."

The two went to their ways.

XXXXX

Back aboard the Aspire

Halsey had never known about the sacrifices made, especially with Rey, the team had to leave him behind, they were being attacked by the turians forces just outside and there was little time for another extraction or capable team to recover Rey.

But even so, it seemed more like another loss to her, these new Spartans were capable of doing nearly the same as the II but they were trained over the length of the war and protocol for Rey was to hold and defend for their sake and the missions, even if he was captured or killed.

Once back aboard the frigate, the team had little time to settle, the turians had scattered their fleet in orbit to scour for them and the thermal trace they left behind was easy to track back to the Aspire and they needed to leave and fast.

Graves couldn't believe his luck, the fact that Rey was left behind and the stealth fields weren't capable of hiding the ship from the thermal traces all they had was time and very little of it.

He ordered. "Tanya we need best possible speed out, get engines at maximum before anyone comes along that is priority one we'll make a run if they find us."

In half an hour the whole ship was rushing over for the jump, Jordan and most of the other companies had heard the report on the mission and were ready to go all out.

On the bridge Tanya started another sweep this time, it was close. "Sir detecting energy signatures on approach, counting three equally sized vessels and half a dozen that are a third of our size, each classification from the extranet says, a wolf pack of frigates and cruisers, but are much smaller than our own."

Graves had known everything would go to plan; he circled about to his command chair. "Begin jump in one minute at random co-ordinates, anywhere outside this cluster."

Tanya replied cheerfully. "We'll have another one minute before we can jump and another 30 seconds for me to send out a pulse signal to coordinate the correct flight trajectory."

The situation seemed dire, the approaching ships had begun to deploy their fighters, and Graves watched as the timer went down, the Aspire jumped as the pack of frigates and ships got within firing range, all that was left for them to chase was a trail of radiation and a very large question.

End – final coming up.

Sorry this goes on for nearly three chapters


	11. CH6

CH3

Well, side story maybe romance I had to edit this because it would have been M+ about the ending.

Rey felt blurry, he remembered the sound of air escaping and the pressure alert of his suit warning him that it was breached, and then reality came back to him, the fight in the chamber with Evan, he sat up.

This was not the best of ideas, his head adjusting rapidly to his environment made him dizzy, a moment later he found himself within a secure cell, illuminated room of dull metal with a bathroom next to him, the fact he found his armour still on surprised him, his inner suit was scratched in places, suggesting they tried different means of getting the suit off without success.

'What the hell's going on?'

He turned to the door of his cell; it had been clear like glass but he doubted it this, his theory was proven correct when he hit the door, the door dented from his punch and spider cracks formed, he stepped back and observed.

'Clear and strong it has to be more enduring than steel.'

The hallway outside had sounds of clanking, he knew footsteps when he heard them; soon five avian like guards approached their mandibles twitching uncomfortably, the intercom sounded. "Get behind the door, or we'll restrain you by force."

Rey severely doubted them; the one thing he had also noticed was there was a blue skinned woman with fleshy looking hair, who had been standing beside the alien addressing him, she looked familiar.

He found himself in no position to escape yet… this would provide an means of learning about his captors, he backed a bit from the door and stood back waiting, the six aliens in total figured that he wasn't going any further than where he was, so they opened the door and carefully the guards surrounded him.

The one Avian alien with face markings looked at him in a rather disturbed manner, the sheer strength that Rey displayed caused some concern, and the alien wore a uniform similar to military UNSC navy dress, he presumed that he was the leader.

The four guards all wore armoured suits with rifles drawn, and the blue alien who stood next to the leader wore a combat suit or what looked like one, the Venerator simply stood and looked at them until the leader put out his arm and it started to glow orange, then suddenly it spoke. "You have been caught trespassing in a citadel controlled facility and has killed personnel and destroyed property belonging to the turain hierarchy, what is it that you were looking for?"

Rey had finally learnt of the name of the organisation they followed, he looked to the turian and replied. "Well, there was an object of significance that you had in possession and it was only required to simply recover this quietly and quickly but you gave us no other way round, and so we thought it better to simply hit and run, and this and the fact my people aren't trusting of other species since our last encounter."

The turian seemed like he was in a corner and made his cautious reply. "The citadel never expected that some species like you would take an interest in stealing or the destruction of property for the sake of profit."

"Well, if you mean, the Forerunner outpost that you dug up and attempted to access, well it was better not to trust your citadel with such dangerous tech without even understanding the complexities in such things."

Both had simply stood there staring at each other, though Rey had a good idea where this going, he responded to the turian officer. "Well, our first contact with another species nearly wiped out our entire race so we don't tend to explore without reassurance anyway, if you're going to get anything else, not anymore after this."

The turian commander was now getting annoyed; then the asari spectre tapped on his shoulder. "Commander, do you wish for me to assist in formal interrogations?"

The commander knew the asari Spectre had joined the mission as a precaution when the council allowed the expedition and transfer of the core and she had been the one to bring this pilot in. "Diri'ania, he's all yours, the council and hierarchy will want a report, tell me what you can find."

Diri'ania acknowledged and motioned for the guards to move the prisoner, the asari spectre would probably be the only one who could get some actual answers.

Rey knew what they were going to do to him, his enhanced hearing overheard the interrogation, and it would be a bit rough but not enough to get him to talk. The guards moved Rey after ten minutes and had him walked past other cells until they reached another hallway then took a left turn into a room, there sat a single chair lying at an angle, it had cuffs, and other means of restraint, the guards sat him down on the chair while the dark blue skinned alien named Diri'ania observed him.

After strapping him down the guards withdrew from the room and closed the door behind them, Rey assumed that this alien wasn't going to let him be, unlike that of the uniformed personnel.

Diri'ania paced around him direct and swift she told him. "The proceedings of the interrogation are non-existent with me, so this is your first and only warning for you, to cut through the formalities about military standards, simply tell me or I would have no choice in exerting some rather unpleasant methods of getting you to speak, I am a spectre of the council meaning I am above rank and file, this interrogation will not be recorded, and no one is coming back for you."

Rey would have passed some BS for her to follow on but he'd rather not say anything until it began, he simply looked at her, Diri'ania moved back to him, she faced him and asked a question. "What is on the other side of the relay?"

Rey didn't answer and simply looked away; Diri'anna then took a subtle measure of turning his head with her hand and repeated with more volume. "What is on the other side of the relay that you came from?"

Rey then decided to slowly pull his head away; he said in his defiance ID and rank.

XXXXX

Diri'ania knew that this would be long, she continued to ask questions, the hours passed and yet no luck, Rey was genetically augmented man, she was looking at a nearly impossible to break person, his mind and body was meant to endure; the physical side of things didn't do any good.

She couldn't inflict any damage to the suit he was wearing and the fact he had it attached to his body didn't help had she tried beating his head only proved with very little effect, she only had her biotics and her mind meld, she had planned to reserve that only in the most hardest to crack, but this hadn't been any exception.

The hours passed and eventually she needed a break

When she walked out of the room she had found more of the turian commanders with captains and a group of admirals waiting in a conference about the recent attack on Amphora.

There also appeared to be in the group had been a turian Spectre Varris'selis, she had heard that he had been recently finishing a corruption investigation in the trade sectors of Illium with Nihlus K.

The first group was admirals who got her attention she walked up and gave a normal military salute with the admirals returning it and asked. "Have you managed to get anything on the other side of the relay?"

Diri'ania knew that with the devastation caused by a single walking tank and the impressive stealth ship, the admirals would be rearing to go and remove what threat there was to the Turian Hierarchy, and replied. "I have had to say nothing, he has reinforced amour more capable of adjusting to whatever we throw at it, the other problem is the fact he can withstand being physically beaten there is only two options for me to take, try using biotics and then if he gets beyond that I will use my mind meld to see if I can locate something."

A single admiral Fov'rrias explained a point of interest. "Thank you, for your efforts Diri'ania, but the situation has changed and we will have Varris' and two other specialists to help with the interrogation this time, there is also the fact of the mysterious armour, the Salarians have sent a STG group with the relevant means of unlocking the technology the alien possessed, we have seen the report on it, most of our scientists are amazed at the feat of such technology, it possess more advanced weaponry than that of an entire squadron of fighters, it is still under heavy observation though, but the objects the alien was carrying are in the labs you should try using something from there if you need to."

And with that the admirals and other officers departed, though Varris' went up to her and asked. "So, what did you think of your new prisoner?"

She turned her head and replied sternly. "He shouldn't be underestimated he is far stronger than any one I have seen, the fact alone that I had to resort to using biotics for the next part of only a few hours of interrogation shows it."

Varris' wondered and then asked. "Do you really think that, the being we captured would withstand more pressure?"

She showed it in her body language, and in the way she just nodded. "There is no doubt that he could probably over power the entire ship if he felt like it, but he's just playing cautious."

The two continued down the hallway, Diri'ania had to find some way…

A few hours later

Diri'ania and Varris' had collected the assorted set of gear the being had possessed, as they walked they noticed the Salarian STG squads running about with data on what had occurred, they were also gathering Intel on his mechanised heavy mobile amour. The suit had been moved to the labs with much effort, all the weapons and gear lay around it with the Salarians trying to take each piece apart but with little success, the two Spectres continued down the hallway.

The second time they had to do this was much to the same result as the first, they had found nothing, the weapon details or anything had nothing, the two were at their wits end, Diri'ania had used most of her biotics on the being.

To their surprise he shrugged the energy off slightly, the warp had no effect and simply twisted him into his chair, had proven just as useless, when she finally hit with enough force to break krogan bones he simply shrugged it off with a bit of wincing, and smiled.

Varris had found himself more than a challenge, the being in front of him was like a fortress, even though being caught off guard by Diri'ania and her biotic powers he quickly adapted to whatever they threw at him.

Diri'ania had only one option left, she had prepared to use her mind meld and gave the being a warning beforehand. "I did what physically and telekinetically possible now you leave me with a single option, I will enter our minds together, if you resist it will not only hurt but you may suffer damage."

Rey heard what she said and simply looked at her with defiance, the beatings and telekinetic attacks had scratched and bumped him, but it wasn't enough, he knew what to do when she entered his mind.

Diri'ania walked over to him and placed herself in front of his eyes, then she muttered something her eyes turned a void of black, the last words he heard her say were. "Embrace eternity."

Diri'ania had never expected his mind to be so different, she waded through his memories with difficulties and found nothing more than what had recently happened, but he kept his most sensitive material locked with his personal memories.

Rey realising where she was prodding, finally decided to let her see the nightmares and dreams lost in war, the gates of his mind unbarred themselves and she saw what he saw.

Diri'ania looked in the memories simply exploded in her face, the rush of war, the sacrifices made, and the horrifying loss overcame her senses, she found what she had been looking for but it now came at a cost, the screams of his family calling out for his help, the brothers he lost and the war he fought in finally sent her reeling. She couldn't believe such devastation from a war could possibly bring to her.

Varris' watched as the asari Spectre suddenly screamed as she pulled her head away, she began screaming out for help, as she hit the floor suffering whatever she had just witnessed, the guards outside rushed in calling for a medic, the turians had trouble trying to hold her still as she thrashed and screamed, eventually the medics rushed in sedating her before carrying her off to the infirmary.

News of the incident had spread fast as the Council asked the turian Spectre what occurred, the next day the news over the extranet about the conflict and the loss of an asari spectre shook the public, an asari force was also dispatched to investigate the incident, while speculation of the sudden appearance of a hostile species had caught the attention of the entire galaxy.

Varris walked to the infirmary to check on Diri'ania, the thought of her going insane shocked him, though it had been three days since then, the prisoner had been locked into the maximum security cell and no one had gone to try another interrogation after them, the turian fleet had now an entire armada waiting in orbit to move in to the relay with Nihlus at the head and himself soon to follow.

And Varris was asked by the Council to ensure that everything went along smoothly because they wanted no part involving the council directly. As he found Diri'ania's room, he found her still asleep, she hadn't woken up after the meld, the days passed he just waited so he could get some answers.

Her mind, Rey's memories 6years back

Diri'ania found herself walking through empty streets of corpses, the place seemed to terrify her, the bodies of aliens and others seemed to pile into every street she walked along, the sheer smell made her feel like retching, then a sound came a child was crying.

She walked through the piles of bodies to find the source of the noise, she then appeared to be in some sort of field and by a tree was a child in darkened clothing crying over quietly, she called out but he couldn't hear her, she started climbing towards him, she reached the child who had been crying and asked. "Why are you here child?"

The young raven haired boy looked to her and said. "I'm here because I'm lost."

She knelt down to the child's height and asked. "Who are you?"

The little boy's eyes were an emerald green and then it turned a heavy red as he said. "I am the legacy of those lost."

The two talked for what seemed like an eternity, and then something called her back.

The world around Diri'ania closed and she suddenly awoke, the sounds of war gone, the screams of innocents no more and the child who looked to her vanished, she looked to see the Varris waiting for her on a chair reading a data-pad, he realised that she had awoke and called the doctor.

He walked over to her with a concerned look and asked. "How do you feel?"

She sat there still recovering and replied. "I don't know."

The next few hours of waiting for the admirals and other officers from the joint fleets as well as the reporters and scientists in the meeting room, as Diri'ania had entered the room suddenly hushed, she saw one asari admiral who went up to her and asked. "How do you feel Diri'ania?"

She looked to see her old mentor admiral Verilia Reichreia, she replied. "Fine but a little dazed."

The admiral nodded and the officers began to sit down, Diri'ania and Varris were the only ones who remained standing with the few other crews who were there for the briefing and the science team which had been gathered alongside the Salarian STG.

The turian admiral Fov'rrias introduced them. "This meeting is now in session with the debriefing of Diri'ania and fellow Spectre on their findings." The two activated their speech coms and began.

"My investigation into the prisoners mind has revealed a bit about our opponents and from this I call upon Dr Liara T'soni."

Liara was surprised, she was being called up for the briefing, and she nervously took to the stand.

"Well, our discoveries on Amphora have revealed some significance as to the origins of these humans; they share a similar genetic pattern to whatever species had existed there over one hundred thousand years previously."

One of the reporters asked. "Does this mean they are older than the Protheans?"

"Yes… I mean no, the species as humans are now were descendants of whatever this ancient civilisation was and they retain very little of what they ancient species technology."

"What is it that you have learnt about the prisoner?" One Salarian asked.

"The prisoner as known as Rey, on his initials is an genetically altered human, far stronger than their standard person, from our study of his body, there is also the fact that he possessed a small rooster of fellow augments, which we believe were all those who were active."

This time another salarian reporter asked. "Is it true that these augmentations were extensive enough that they were given at a younger age to these soldiers?"

Liara was reading what the team had learnt but didn't know what to expect when she told them.

"Yes these soldiers are quite young, and the soldier in captivity is barely fifteen from his own personnel file and nothing more, he was augmented at the age of six, and on their life span of more than one hundred as we statistically charted, he was augmented at a very young age."

The officers seemed disturbed, the thought of children fighting them on the field with such ferocity was a concern, and one captain Salarian said something about the waste of opportunity.

"All that is certain is that if a conflict was sought between humans and the council species, it would end with a much dire result with statistically extreme losses on our end."

The admirals were now concerned, the humans had more advanced ship to weaponry and living weapons, but the most frightening was the genetically augmented super human weapons waiting for them, the situation was vastly changing.

There was a brief reprieve where Diri'ania asked if anyone had questions.

The firs one came from a turian captain. "Is this true not some illusion, that when you melded that this being was giving you a glimpse in his mind?" Diri'ania replied. "You and others should know that asari mind melds are always definite."

The turian withdrew his claim and waited for the others, the next was a Salarian. "These children that were taken, the gene modifications enhanced how many different levels?"

She replied again. "The children, utilise all enhancements, while some few who have a greater skill in others, the program was called the Venerators, they possess the most advanced weaponry and equipment, they also have personal upgrades such as, active stealth fields, armour lock, holographic diversions of themselves, and many others, they also possess AI."

Everyone in the room paused when she mentioned it, she began to explain. "Their race utilises advanced AI to run major facilities and vessels such as their warships and defence positions while other AI run their research and scientific development side and military installations, the AI utilised work for their people without hatred or aggression towards them, and are placed in the same near equal footing as those of their own kind, I have learnt nothing more."

The officers now became more concerned, not since the quraians had they seen synthetics but now there was a race that utilised hundreds of AI without any problem, the thought of what might happen if they turned on their creators and them concerned them or what would happen if they were used against the citadel.

One admiral suggested simply annihilating them altogether, but was reminded that the humans wouldn't let it happen, the home world of this species was unknown, they had assumed it would be the largest population centre, but from what Diri'ania had said it was unlikely they would be able to take and hold it.

The talks continued of the structure of the humans and what was specifically on the other side, afterwards Diri'ania had decided to pay someone a visit.

XXXXX

Cell block A

The days had gone fast since ending up in this cell, the occasional guard and what not, but this time he heard something different, someone had been at the door, it unlocked revealing the last person he had expected to see, Diri'ania walked in.

Rey had never expected to see her again, but some parts in his mind did, she closed the door behind her and he had also noticed the guards had also gone; she was different this time, wearing a more formal dress she sat down next to him and said. "The one that is lost can always be found."

Those words, she had dug deep into his past, now he knew why she had come, he felt her hands grasping his shoulder and knelt her head on it, he could tell that she understood who he was, the night continued as Rey placed his hands on hers.

Rey had held her in his arms to his chest and held her close and went to sleep, the two in each other's embrace.

(Umm please don't comment on this one, I would rather not say anything either than the two knew each other better, if you look into Rey's bio in the profile set I made it would not outline what it is and I have to update soon, so just enjoy the lovely romance.)


	12. CH7

CH 3.5

Sorry to ask but there is constant speculation and some weird bloody eight ball about quarians and them having hair.

I need the at least accurate details on what people know so I can stich this in for Freelancer. And revelation, there were a lot of good points made but what can I deduct to make this at least as accurate.

Do you know?

Cause if you do message me.

If you don't then don't worry.

Now is the Cameo of the rest of the teams and characters, WOOOOOOOYEAH

And someone special is making their appearance today…

Anomia/ 18/ 1/ 2554

Captain Anthony Kardel stood at the ledge of his bases defence, the night air swept around he and his division had been stationed at Caldera point, a large crater of what had once been a city, the city itself had been lost and the Covenant ended up glassing half until the ships were brought down in a fiery flame by MACs and the Colonial fleet.

And now the city occupants were returning after the prolonged campaign launched by the Militia, the Militia marines decided an effective means of ensuring the safety of the population was to station what companies available.

Even now the city had been slowly rebuilding there had always been the threat of remaining Covenant stragglers attacking the civilians, UNSC reinforcements had arrived in system a few days ago over Anomia to assess the damage to the colonies, most of the colonists actually were relieved, most have fled the UNSC controlled space for their home here free from control, but when the colonies were devastated by the Covenant any help had been welcoming.

Karl watched the city lights, the passing cars and people walking in the streets, not like the refugee camps and shelter points where everyone had to share some room, the city seemed to rebuild at a nominal pace, even being ravaged the colony was well on its way to recovery.

He sat back down on his bench and watched the sky, it seemed so peaceful.

XXXXX

Orbital Ring Anomia 2230hrs

Nathan watched as Anomia glowed, the beautiful sight of the world still bore the pockmarks and scars of the Covenant war, the sudden beeping of his command console got his attention, he walked over to check what directives had arrived for his crew.

/SECURED TRANSMISSION/ 2229hrs ONI Operations Section III/ Anomia South Satellite Relay/

ONI DIRECTIVE ALPHA: EMERGENCY SIGNAL FROM _ASPIRE; _DANGER THREAT HAS NOT BEEN RECOGNISED, SECURE DATA AT SIGMA RELAY 314, INVESTIGATE SIGNAL FOR EMERGENCY AND REPORT FINDINGS TO MILITIA DEFENCE AND COMMAND.

ALL UNSC AND INDEPENDENT MILITIA FORCES HAVE BEEN ALERTED.

INTERCEPT SIGNAL AT SIGMA RELAY IS PRIMARY OBJECTIVE.

/TRANSMISSION END/

Nathan sighed, this hadn't been much of a surprise there had been the chance of meeting something much more hostile than the Covenant and they knew this, but UNSC had learnt of what had been occurring outside of its control, and now the remains of humanity here are just as weary.

UNSC forces were ordered to initially destroy such things of mysterious origins but this relay hadn't been just a simple mystery, the ONI had taken an interest of saving human lives through learning what they could from the Mass Relays, and now it could be another disaster.

Nathan ordered. "All hands to combat alert status, we are moving to Sigma relay to intercept an emergency signal all hands I repeat combat alert status."

The _Sound and Fury _made her way into a swirling tunnel of slip-space and vanished.

XXXXX

Caldera point, South city district

The tall walls of the city surrounded a district, in this district a group of young soldiers appeared walking out of the local pub, they had been celebrating their end of service in the war, though the celebrations seemed early they couldn't care, the war had exhausted them and all they wanted to do was be grateful for the things they had.

One such soldier was Jack R Mclean, a 19 year old veteran of the war, Jack had lost more in his life than most others; he flexed his synthetic left arm as he walked down from the pub, Luke his younger brother followed closely behind with their squad.

The two of them had enjoyed a night with them and their squad, after nearly months they managed to destroy the Covenant forces on their home world and now they could enjoy a piece of quiet and hopefully rebuild.

The night air was refreshing for Jack as he walked by the signs and construction zones, he and his squad were going back to their home, the barracks at the Miles line Base, the Miles line Base had been constructed for an emergency garrison, but the cost of having an auxiliary military facility was considered unnecessary, that was until Anomia was glassed.

As they made their way back to base, Luke, Jacks younger brother was reminiscing of the good old days, of how they nearly died rushing Covenant forward lines, or they orbital drop on to a fortified position, all of which nearly killed them but miraculously hadn't.

The celebrated marines, finally reached home, the base was supposed to be a buzz of activity but since the end of the war with the Covenant most of the other squads had been allowed a few days of free time, Jack and his squad made their way through the front door, the lights were on normal and most of their gear stacked away, Luke went over to his barracks to make sure when the other platoons were to head in, while Jack made his way to his private quarters to get some long needed sleep.

XXXXX

Eastern command, Seven Gates, Militia Auxiliary command

The days since the last of the Covenant forces were finally defeated had been the quietest, Colonel Cody R Luther had to admit the job was never really done, but since there wasn't any chance of being directly attacked most of the staff were on leave.

The fact that UNSC command had allowed this seemed welcome, the Militia had been going at the Covenant for years and now they had the chance to finally take a break, UNSC forces had originally come to relieve the defenders, but in fact only here to confirm the populations existence to High Command, not very surprising, but help was needed and the UNSC forces now stationed at Heather fields base as well as Shaun Lake garrison.

The sudden beeping on his intercom got his attention, he picked the com up. "Hello?"

To his surprise it was an old friend. "Cody, how are you?"

He knew that voice. "David Anderson, I never thought I'd hear from you again."

Anderson smiled, the UNSC forces stationed at Beta Centauri had officially been wiped out, Anderson was the only lucky one to make it out alive, he had been found by the Venerators and with their help managed to save the remanets of the colony, he met with Cody during the aftermath of the First Blood campaign and survived to fight on, the two hadn't spoken after then.

Anderson said. "Likewise Cody, how's being the first youngest colonel to serve?"

He replied. "Not the best things I'd have done, but never would've missed the chance."

Cody curiously asked. "How's Shanxi command working for you?" Anderson chuckled. "If you mean being run over by an admiral who's trying to sort this place out since the Covenant then it's not bad."

The two laughed together, it had been a long time, more to the point Cody knew there's more to just a friendly conversation. He said. "So to the point why are you calling?"

"What do you mean?" Anderson was confused. Cody clarified. "You don't make a connect call over the network just to say hi to a friend especially from command HQ."

Anderson knew he was caught. "Well, we were going to have to speak about this soon enough, two to three days ago ONI sent out a boat to the sigma relay. You know the object they discovered a week back, the ONI thought the Covenant were trying to use it to call for help, but they never had the chance."

Cody asked. "Why then send a boat onto the other side then?" Anderson replied. "Because the relay was something completely different from Covenant and Forerunner technology, the ONI thought there was a chance of another alien species and something about an artefact on the other side, but that was on a side note, so an expedition force was sent."

Cody said. "And I'm guessing something went wrong?" Anderson told him. "The scouting mission hadn't reported in as we hoped, a distress beacon came back, it was priority contact Alpha."

Cody couldn't believe his ears. "That means…" "It means we have an imminent contact situation." Anderson finished.

/UNSC _Sound and Fury_/ 15:30 January 19 2554

/ALPHA distress beacon/ Location: Sigma relay/

(And yes there was a smaller MAC installed on the prowler, like the mass driver in halo reach but better powered.)

The AI Hal 09 (Don't even ask, and I mean never ask.) reported to Nathan.

"Sir arrival at Sigma relay, we have retrieved the beacon, but I from the contents it is showing it's a warning from the Aspire about unknown fleet on approach, this was sent over two days ago."

Nathan was now surer than ever something was wrong. "Fine, if that was all we should try and make our departure."

"Sir, I'm detecting large spike of energy from the relay, multiple unidentified vessels now appearing."

Nathan and the crew froze when they saw hundreds of ships suddenly appear from the relays grasp, he could see that this was what the Aspire was trying to warn them about.

"All hands initiate Cole protocol and prepare for combat, Hal message High Com and tell them what's happening."

The crew scrambled to their posts and began frantically calculating their attack trajectory, they knew they weren't going to win but duty came first, the Sound and Fury faced the massive armada of ships and went head first into battle.

Nathan was sure to be remembered for something, if he survived.

"Fire all archer missiles and charge MAC and lock onto the nearest ship."

XXXXX

The joint fleet was surprised a small human stealth vessel was waiting at the end; they had originally thought there was a defensive fleet waiting for them.

Fov'rrias was humoured they sent a pitiful frigate against their fleet, and most of the others too thought that it had to have been a joke, until a barrage of missiles overwhelmed four wolf pack frigates defences and a MAC round blew apart another in the process, they desperately underestimated the firepower of just a small vessel.

It was quickly finished as the fleet suddenly concentrated fire on the human vessel; it was struck 5 times in the body, two rounds tore the engines and structure, but still it went on to fight.

XXXXX

Nathan was bleeding from the forehead, he could see only the bloody mist in his eyes as the opposing ships made their final run on the Sound and Fury, and biting back the pain of multiple wounds he dragged himself to the console.

The crew around him were evacuating and he and the navigations and tactical officers were all that remained, the ship groaned across its structure as parts came off, Nathan could watch as the enemy ships closed the distance.

Setting the ship on a collision course he blacked out, believing he could buy the colonies sometime before the attack began.

"Looks like we all go together… eh old girl."

He never realised that the ship was dead in the water when he passed out, the enemy struck once more killing the remaining officers and disabling the prowler, but to Captain Nathan he was sure to have died.

(Thanks to all those who are reading for the 10,000 views and thanks to those who read my other stories.)

This is just cameo's for the remaining characters before the big twist in the plot!


	13. CH8

CH8

16/1/2554

7:35

The Aspire came rushing out of slip-space, the run from Amphora had been complete and the mission to recover the artefact out of the turians hands, but the cost came at Rey and most of the remaining venerators were none too happy for their brother's predicament.

The Spartans knew what it felt like to lose team mates, or family, but they had a job to do, and they had to do it before anything else. But the venerators were different and more so in attitude and action.

"Damn it, why can't we get him back?" Grey said in a harsh growl.

"Because the colonies come before family and that means Rey, if he is alive or dead we couldn't retrieve him, we don't have the necessary people or gear to…" Karl was interrupted.

"DAMN it Karl we don't just leave brothers to die and you know it, we have to at least pass our tag's back in before we die."

The two venerators were arguing over the sense of family and duty, the Spartans had never had to deal with such things, but they could understand their uneasy behaviour.

The teams had returned to the Aspire and recovered more than just an artefact, they had retrieved a memory module of the Forerunners and new data. The ONI spooks back on earth would like to get their hands on the data, but the Aspire was well out of reach, now with Spartan II and III on the ship the crew was getting tense, not because of the Spartan but because they were now in unknown territory.

Fred and the Spartans moved along to let the venerators to come to an agreement, now walking down the ship Fred and the other Spartans managed to get a better look at the advancements since their time.

The corridors were slightly larger for personnel to reach their posts, and the rooms of each section of the ship seemed more organised and more tactically efficient, the walls had reinforced bridges that connect just above their heads, capable of withstanding more punishment.

The Spartans also noted the change in the ships schematics and colouring, the new frigate had adapted black and dull silver or grey, the walls also had some kind of deployable metal shields at specific points most probably to reduce issues with boarders.

As the team moved down to the barracks they had an interesting taste of what the colonists of Nova Stratus were like, the mixing and mingling of different individuals, the different demeanour that they had and the fact that there were soldiers dressed in black and red with a wolfs head symbol on their clothes with a motto attached.

'Aim for their throats.'

Btu the most intriguing thing to the Spartans were, the soldiers and technicians were all young, and this was proven when they noted the teenager field stripping a MA5C rifle with modifications down and redoing it within less than 2 minutes.

These soldiers had proven themselves already to the Spartans, with large amounts of weapons at their disposal and vehicles it was just like a UNSC frigate but with everyone older now somehow young.

The Spartans eventually reached the end of their tour after looking at the new fighters in the hangar bay and the new shields and engines, the Spartans couldn't have believed such things were possible and just ignored by the whole time by the UNSC.

Well in any case they were glad to have the colonists and venerators on their side.

XXXXX

Dr Valerie's office 09:23

Halsey had finished her introduction to the ship and her meeting with Captain Graves, but there was something that had gotten to her during the meeting, the lack of age the man had or the fact the ship was this far out.

It made some sense but to her it felt like ONI was keeping different parts out, the mission had been to secure data on the Forerunners, as simple as it was, and the identification of these aliens.

But something was off; the ship was a stealth frigate, not a prowler or a simple research vessel but a fully armed frigate with hundreds of soldiers and specialists, including Spartan types, which to her surprise were called venerators.

The venerators were sent only in necessity, and this seemed interestingly more than just an exercise, the whole thing seemed more and more like they had predicted some outcomes and were willing to sacrifice soldiers if need be.

'These venerators were used in the Nova Stratus campaign but only a few things are ever mentioned in the records, who ever let them be known was covering their tracks well.'

The door opened revealing a tired Dr Valerie who had finished her report on the Forerunner data core.

"Sorry for the lateness, I got caught up deciphering something's manually and you know…"

She yawned and lazily set her coat on the chair behind Halsey and set to get into bed.

"Wake me when you need me…" She said as she dozed off.

Halsey noticed the humour of the situation.

'Doctors getting lazy and professors getting paranoid, my we must have sure changed.'

XXXXX

Bridge 9:35

Graves had gone over Dr Halsey's report on the micro Dyson sphere, though it gave new insight into the Forerunners it didn't provide details or specifics, but the bright side to this would be of the return of Halsey herself.

Though ONI would have her questioned for the next few weeks when they got back, the Spartan II and III were getting acquainted with the crew, though the argument down in the hangar with Grey and Karl had been of concern.

The Venerators were trained to have each other's back until death, and if they were left behind or left to die, they at least gave in their memory tags. These tags were capable of storing the life memory of each Venerator and when they die it is supposed to be placed into a type of secure system called 'Memory' though no one but the recovery units know of what it actually is, and they of course are part of a separate division which resides on a Forerunner world called Tertiary.

The venerators have never lost these memory tags, and only the few which were are considered at the highest of honours, but to lose a memory tag to an enemy is a fate to them far worse than death.

Graves looked about at his old pictures of the war with the covenant and how he had so many friends and brothers in arms, he could remember them all, but the same thing applies for the venerators, though it was worse to them to lose brothers.

Tanya popped up, her demeanour remaining calm and serene as usual.

"Sir, I have intercepted a distress beacon." She reported.

"Where is it located?" He said.

"Not too far in system sir, the ship does not match the turian vessel designs, and from what I can tell is in high danger, though the decision is yours."

He thought about helping some locals, but this might attract some attention.

"Has anybody responded yet?"

"No sir, the planet has a high EM field and scans cannot penetrate either than the signal, I have noted due to this only ships within system can respond and there are none within reach."

Graves had no hate for these aliens and if there was a chance to at least get an understanding from someone, it was probably best to ask the locals.

"Fine, Tanya get us on that signal but keep an eye out for other ships, any reach the system we pull out."

"Aye sir, who should we call in for this mission?"

"The venerators had enough, maybe you should ask the Spartans, but this is if they're up to it and have 343rd prep just in case."

With this Graves dismissed Tanya.

XXXXX

17/1/2554

5:15

The Aspire arrived to the uncharted planet; its glowing orange and brown surface hazed the view on the window. Fred and blue along with Katana were preparing for a search and rescue mission for some locals, mainly this was just to test the Spartans and get them up and about, the rest period was good and they seemed to have had enough time to get ready.

Linda was helping attach some of the new gear they had received from the venerators and the armoury, the MKI-Vindicator armour smugly sat in place of his old MK-IV MJOLNIR and was much lighter, though not to deceive the armour was stronger than it looked, he had gotten used to the colour being standard blue with azure lining.

Though Ash, Olivia and Mark were not as happy with the sudden redesign of their armour, they had a habit of having armour that was built for stealth rather than combat, the armour they were given were MKI-Marauders, the armour matched the standard blue and azure as did Fred, but they had a problem with the armour being strangely less thick than his SPI, though they were reassured the suit was much more capable than SPI.

Linda and Kelly were both outfitted with the same armour, MKI-Ranger armour, it was lighter and more suitable for rapid recon and scouting as well as stealth, both were updated with cloaking and jammers, but to everyone's surprise both were blue as well.

The Katana team was the only ones who had armour that was more based for combat, and it did not have blue, their armour was black and deep red, and all had the same armour, the MKIII-Redeemer as it was called was worn by the regulars of the venerators and was the only armour left that was their sizes, though it looked more bulky than the vindicator, the suit covered the entire body, advanced armour was placed at the joints to reduce damage, and their visor was actually a combat mask with two eye slits.

But without complaint the Spartans quickly adjusted to their new armour and received a few upgrades for themselves, blue team did receive combat adaptations for their suits, excluding Linda and Kelly, with standard shield boosters and CQB knives and daggers inbuilt into their suits.

Katana did not receive any kind of upgrade because they were short on time, though only enhanced speed boost for them to run about and get about.

Tanya materialised on a display on the wall to brief the Spartans.

"Arriving in orbit, surface scans show evidence of a shipwreck meeting quarian design specifications; I have compared the ship designs from my investigation into their extranet. Identity of ship unknown, number of life signs detected in vicinity uncertain. Local wildlife may interfere with accuracy of biological scan."

Fred was the first to ask. "So no ideas how far we're to land?"

"Approximately 150m from the crash there is a clearing and possibly a camp." She said.

Ash was the one to ask out of curiosity. "What about these quarians, can we trust they won't shoot at us?"

Tanya replied. "My investigation into the quarian people show no hostilities unless to defend themselves and their people."

"So, play nice, will you." She said.

With this the teams set into their designated pelicans, and set themselves for planetary insertion.

XXXXX

5:50 Alpha LZ

Blue team felt the ride down on to the planet, the rough EM fields had at first scrambled a part of their gear but once they had gotten to the ground it was relatively simple, Fred ordered for a standard search pattern of 2x3 and moved towards the campsite of the quarians.

Katana were deployed north from where blue team were and moved quickly down form their landing zone and moved to meet them in the clearing ahead of the campsite.

XXXXX

Fred and blue team had arrived at the campsite, it was not to their surprise to find it abandoned, there was a few faint traces of what seemed like a struggle, large patches of the ground had marks of three toes but Linda found another few sets that did not belong, like a normal shoe print that led away from specific areas.

"Looks like someone may have gotten here sooner than we thought." She said searching the data logs and computers around the camp.

"Agreed, but we can't leave yet, we have our orders to locate and confirm at least." Fred said.

Kelly placed her hand on one of the intact computers, or what looked like one, the screen started glowing orange before some text appeared. The language was alien and she couldn't really get the gist of using her in built translator, she pressed a few buttons that Tanya had told them to so it would begin.

A few moments later and the text on her HUD read out what the quarians had left.

-Crew Log-

Commander Unare'vael vas Idenna

-We have arrived in system over a week before but we doubt there is any chance we can escape off this forsaken rock, the pirates that attacked us are hopefully gone, but that is also in doubt, though we wait here for rescue something has gone wrong, there were five teams sent out to scout for some water and one did not return and I fear the worst.

-Middle entry

We have been unsuccessful in recovering the team and my suspicions are growing, there are strange noises reported along the north and the scout team sent did not report back, I hope that the flotilla will find us soon because someone else already has.

-Last entry

Damn… we should have known the… would not… find us, I can only hope that this record reaches the flotilla… damn they have found the camp I must leave…

"Upon the path I walk the endless seas of stars I shall return to where I came. The ground is broken and held up high upon endless gusts, the path to the light is nearby."

Kelly pulled herself from the screen, Fred asked. "Did you find anything?"

"Just this thing and a very good riddle with it, sir."

Blue team checked the logs, they were surprised to hear that something was just north of their position, and that Katana team was heading right on top of it.

"We need to get to this survivor and contact Katana."

Kelly said. "So we split up?"

"Looks like it."

"Ash, Olivia and Mark you will go looking for the survivor and Linda you'll be in charge, me and Kelly will move towards Katana and meet them at the rendezvous point, hopefully undetected."

"Sir yes sir."

The Spartans quickly went to their designated objectives.

XXXXX

Katana were only a few hundred more meters from the RP and were noticing some interesting sights, the grounds in which their clearing was, was made by hand not naturally and there was some structures a bit north east from their current location, that meant that there was more than just a crashed ship.

Katana stopped less than 100 meters, Liam G114 as the leader stopped the team.

"Something is wrong; the area ahead is the rendezvous point but, there are multiple structures not far from there and strange artificial adjustments, someone was already here."

The team was never suspecting that they were being watched.

XXXXX

(SORRY)

I didn't have the time to complete this but we will be back on Monday or Sunday.

To all of revelation fans hope you like this one.


	14. CH9

6:00

Alpha rally point

Kelly and Fred had carefully made their way across the forest, the rally point was straight ahead and there was no sign of Katana team. Fred was getting surer that Katana wasn't going to show up, they had all trained for various events and this was sure to qualify as that kind of event.

The sudden thud from behind them and Fred turned with his rifle pointing at… "Liam?" The Katana team leader's rifle was pointing at his head as he made his way out.

"Sir we thought you were one of the others." He said in a plain calm voice.

"Who do you mean by others?"

Liam called the rest of Katana out, and there was an additional person with them, a humanoid like being with an environmental suit stepped out its figure exactly like the shape of the alien mentioned by Tanya but more feminine in shape.

"She and about twenty seven others are here but the rest are at a camp not far from here."

The alien started speaking as she pointed at them, the translators that Tanya adapted kicked in.

"How many of you are there?" She said appointing at Fred and Kelly.

Liam told her. "More than enough to get your crew back safely."

She replied with. "Thank you, my family are in danger, the slavers attacked our vessel over, your companions found me not far from the base."

"No problem, though it would be advisable to keep to yourself. What is your name?"

"Avi'rilo vas Idenna, I'm of the quarian migrant fleet."

He replied. "Okay, Avi stay here with Katana, Liam get your team prepped, Linda and the others will be heading back with the other quarian."

Avi asked. "Which one of us is it?"

"Your commander, Unare'vael, he survived by escaping, though he left behind some clues as to where."

"Unare'vael? Keelah, we had hoped someone might find him, not the slavers."

"Well it shouldn't take long, Al and Jen will form a perimeter around the camp with me and Linda, and then we plan how to get your people out."

XXXXX

Plateau 500m west

The run to the plateau was simple, climbing it was a bit harder, the wall of the rock face was brittle and kept breaking under the weight of the Spartans, and it was then that Linda decided to use the ingenious method of the suit enhancement, digging into the walls with their wrist daggers and hidden blades in the boots.

They had reached the one place that the quarian had mentioned, the only place around that could see the stars and the constellations was the plateau. Now reaching the top the Spartan team hauled themselves over the top, there was nothing up there, moving about the plateau they found someone.

There was an alien crouching under a den, the alien noticed them and panicked, reaching for its sidearm Ash reached out and grabbed the weapon and then knocked the alien on the ground before it could react.

"Well, that's been taken care of, so how do we get him down?"

XXXXX

Rally point alpha

Fred and the rest of blue team had their reunion after half an hour, the walk to alpha was quick but the climb down for Linda was slowed due to the extra weight. Now being finally introduced with their quarian allies they were formulating a plan to remove the slavers base.

"We scouted the region, the base is surrounded by turrets and the area around it was cleared, there are a few detainment pens where the quarians are being held. Though this complicated seeing all the guard towers are facing the outside, and there is security mechs emplaced along each pen."

Fred explained from the recon.

"So if we try we could end up with a slaughter on our hands, and we can't take out all the guards at once and think things are going to end well."

Kelly said as the map drawn up on Fred's TAC display showed the layout and the most likely outcome.

There was a shift in the timing for the guards, and this was during the morning to night.

"It looks like we can infiltrate, but the guards and the mechs are the bulk of the problems, though they aren't on alert, we could probably take the guards along the wall and the towers, but the main command room for the mechs might be harder."

Liam interjected. "But not something we can't do, and besides my team will deal with the command room, we have the skill and capabilities."

"Are you sure about this?" Fred asked.

"Sure enough sir." Liam replied.

"Then let's get to it Spartans, the quarians will be going to release the others while blue team deals with the guards."

XXXXX

Unare was getting out of his unconscious state, his head ached the blow to the head hadn't improved his condition, punctures in some areas of his suit had been covered and antibiotics had flooded his suit, but he was still shaky.

He looked about at his environment, the large bulky figures from before were now gathered, and he noticed someone near him, it was Avi.

"Avi, what happened?"

"We were saved; these beings hear the distress beacon and came to help." She said pointing at the large armoured soldiers.

"So does that mean we can get the rest of the crew?" He asked.

"Yes, they are going tonight, hopefully get everyone out."

"Are you going as well?"

"Yes once the guards are distracted I can get everyone out and meet up with them here."

"Good luck, and please caution." He said.

XXXXX

0900

It was now night time, blue team chose their targets, the guards along the wall were their first problem. And Katana were going to deal with the command centre.

As Fred checked his timer it reached the exact moment… now.

Before any could react six guards along the perimeter vanished, and the guards at the base complex were also gone.

Avi moved carefully to the holding pens, there she saw the other crew still alive, but some wounded and others hungry, She was not happy with the slavers.

The signal came as more guards vanished; the batarians and turians never knew what hit them.

A small explosion finally got everyone's attention; Katana had breached the command door and was assaulting the centre.

It was a fast fire fight, which resulted in one-sided casualties; the commander who was in charge was killed when Liam drove a knife into his throat and crushed his windpipe.

Avi quickly set the members of her species free; the Loki mechs were powered down.

Escaping the quarians made their way back to their camp where the Aspire would have sent a shuttle to retrieve them.

Blue team and Katana set charges and burnt the whole complex down, letting it be known someone else was not going to tolerate this.

"Sir, eta on pick up?"

"Soon." Fred said watching the sky for the pelican.

There were now over a dozen crew of the Cyniad awaiting rescue.

The pelican eventually came, with the other, loading the quarians aboard; the team secured everyone to the seats before take-off.

Avi had never experienced ships without inertial dampeners; this was a first for many of the crew.

The Pelicans escaped the planets gravity and reached the welcoming frigate overhead.

On board the crew awaited for the arrival of the quarians, Tanya had already explained to the med teams how to treat and what to look out for.

The black pelicans arrived in the lower bays, lifting them in the hatches opened; there a number of suited aliens stepped out.

The med teams moved forwards to secure them before anything else, and took all the wounded down to medical.

Avi watched as Unare was taken on to a stretcher and was taken, she was sure that he was safe, and that these new aliens were non-hostile.

Grey had never thought he'd see the day that an alien actually not shoot at them, he was helping move these quarians into the med bay with the rest of the company.

While this was occurring the remaining quarians were taken to the mess, it was easier to move them there instead of keeping them in the hangar.

There a proper check-up was detailed on the quarians health, and it was to provide a means of bottling them up without having them wander about.

Avi was sure they were safe, but it seemed these aliens didn't want to risk much so they set them in one place, the mess hall seeing all the tables, the crew aboard the ship seemed quiet and more secluded to their own.

Dr Halsey and Valerie were both to see to the health of the quarians with a medical team, when they first approached the quarians were curious or more suspicious of them, it went well though, a minor check on their DNA and they had a means or producing the necessary means of helping.

A few questions were asked by the quarians mostly about their fellow crew but that was really it, the med teams were now getting the necessary tissue to clone, and the chef was busy preparing to replicate some dextro-protein supplements or food.

1300hrs

Some hours passed and the Jordan had finally prepared some cleaned food, though he had to wear a bio suit and sterilise the whole kitchen, there was some protein pastes and some bowls though he was sure that he needed to put straws so it was more accessible to the quarians.

Serving the food, Jordan of the 151st and a few dozen others to clean the mess hall, the tables were set for the quarians.

Avi had known military standards when she saw these soldiers but the fact they looked young was an understatement, the chef was a similar heighted young man, him with his curly hair set out their food, though she was surprised at his skill in cooking.

The food was definitely well prepared and much time was put into it, the young man translated something in another language they couldn't understand but was sure to mean have a nice dinner.

The quarians were unsure to the polite attitude of their chef and his fellow subordinates, which were surprisingly older than himself.

XXXXX

After their dinner they were shown about the ship, though their guide was a human as he called himself, who had a longer standing job as security than military. He allowed them to look about until they reached the barracks of the marines.

There was a strange fact that they were actually changing and they had to wait a bit, once he was sure he allowed them across to their rooms. Though the quarian crew was sure about the fact that these were children, they could see a few hundred going about.

It seemed as though their military consisted of teenagers, no older than a quarian on pilgrimage or just getting their larger suit. They noticed how some of them looked though, more weary of conflict and others active but secluded, and they were all somehow involved in war.

This was more surprising and disturbing when they passed by, their rooms on the other side was isolated to the rear, and there was a door to exit and enter on both sides. And the rooms were built for 4 per each.

They were surprised that the ship was so large, nearly larger than a cruiser and had crew and soldiers aboard capable of tactical strikes.

Avi and the others talked about the mysterious ship and crew, if they were there to help, it could mean that the quarian people might have an ally amongst the stars.

XXXXX

18/1/2554

Unare was recovering well, and the ship that had rescued them was en-route to the migrant fleet, the humans had decided to assist them by meeting with the admiralty board to discuss terms.

Unare was now walking about he and the other 2 quarians were discharged out of the med bay with a clean bill of health.

Avi was also up and about with the quarian crew looking about as a group; they were surprised to find their injured crew mates in good condition.

They had a breakfast with the same protein paste, and then they were shown about the ship by another human, though he was an armoured soldier that dwarfed them all, his hair was blonde and slightly dirty and his face bore minor but plentiful scars, though his skin was pale like their own.

They had never known another species that actually lived inside their own suits, the quarians had to live with these as a consequence, but the humans didn't need their own, but these soldiers seemingly did.

Avi was now more curious as to how the humans came to be this far in the galaxy from their own sector of space, but this would be answered later.

As they were at the bridge she noted the entire strangely old looking tech, but some was much more unique, such as the holo projectors and the fact there were graphical displays of planets and star maps rather than a galaxy map. And the fact that there was a holographic projection of a female human waving at them…

"Hello and welcome aboard the UNSC Aspire, I am the smart artificial intelligence known as Tanya."

The quarians were stunned at first they had just found out there was an AI just waving at them.

Then a panic, Avi and the others looked nervous, the crew on the bridge seemed to think it strange.

"Is something wrong?"

The AI now reappeared at full height of a human and seemed to just look at them.

"No it's just we never had any good history when coming into contact with AI." Avi said.

"That's alright, I'm technically the ship's main computer, and navigations and such, I don't harbour distrust against organics."

"Well, I guess not, or the crew would have been dead." Unare said.

"That is not the way I would like to approach the topic." Tanya replied.

"So why aren't you trying to kill other organics?"

"My program is based on human designs and functions, really to say, I am human but part of me knows of what I really am and am not, to put it simply I am what I am."

The quarians had to discuss this amongst themselves.

XXXXX

Graves watched as the things unfolded, he knew it was going to be long but he had a plan.

(The quarian migrant fleet next. And BTW Tali is not yet born, we have to wait another 5 years.)


	15. CH10

Rewrite.

(To all readers the series will be ending shortly and a future story will continue on, this will be ME1 but this series will end in three to seven chapters as of this one.)

Anomia 20/1/2554

Lagrange point L1

13:00

The Few and None stood out over the world of Anomia, she had been docked for weeks and had just finished her last patrol, the Halcyon class cruiser was refitted after the first battle of Anomia and Nova stratus, with over 2500 crew and marines the ship was better than ever.

Refitted along the hull were new light wave barrier shields, capable of dispersing energy and projectile weapons, the hull was also reinforced with Gravity-plates and further adaptations were made, the new MAC and the new point defences, the Few and None was the pride of Nova Stratus.

Admiral Vance was staring out into the vast expanse of space, the endless darkness and undiscovered territory, something which the captain did not comfort himself in. The Aspire lost contact and had not reported in, and most of the defence forces were alerted to a priority Alpha E-band code from Sound and Fury, which had also gone out of com nearly a day before.

"Has the preparations begun?" He asked.

"Yes sir, the last of the dispatches is on planet side, and all cities have been alerted, civilian population in shelter, though others have resorted have resorted to pre-ceasefire plans and youth have been moved to external camps."

Just like in the covenant war time, the civilian families would evacuate children to outskirt pockets called 'camps' in order to save their children and hopefully survive as soldiers. The thought made Vance remember how fragile these children were, no home and no chance of survival, but they fought on, against everything.

"Right, tell the fleet for standard defence pattern, get the MAC DP field one to move to our position and gather the others in a funnel formation, we won't let up."

"Sir yes sir." The ensign went to the com.

A beeping caught the crew's attention.

"Sir, the L5-L9 Long range sensors have picked up energy signatures on approach, standard pattern, a fleet, coming in at L2-L3, it exceeds three hundred signatures!"

Vance looked out the bridge of the Few and None, a sudden blast of space around in the void and a fleet larger but smaller in comparison had arrived.

"All hands level one battle stations, code red, Greg alert HIGH COM, we have hostiles."

The defenders of Anomia were the first to fifth fleet and the 2.5million soldiers on the ground, Vance was in charge of the first to third fleet as high admiral, and the other two were the patrol fleets that protected the border planets.

"Alert rear Admiral Trent, tell him to pull the third fleet in, and assume control of defence operations of Anomia." He ordered.

"We will take the first and second fleet into a standard formation above L1 and begin to intercept enemy force; the fourth will arrive to secure any external entities around the core worlds."

XXXXX

Admiral Fov'rrias was not surprised to see an entire fleet there to meet them; he assumed that his attack on the small ship alerted them. Though when the fleet captured the small ship they found nothing, except the captain and the remaining survivors, the records state of a beacon, but most of the databanks were fried by other means than the battle, these humans covered their tracks well, but they did read a small data pad on the world of Anomia held within some soldiers quarters, it was the main capital of the sector.

The salarians and asari fleet commanders agreed with the turian officers that removing the capital would cripple this sector of space, and so they plotted a course to the world of Anomia. So he waited for reinforcements from the hierarchy and others, which came in this form.

"Sir we are detecting a large concentration of ships, about fifty, many ships are more than one kilometre long."

He was caught off guard by this.

"You're telling me they have dozens of dreadnoughts?"

"More or less sir, but we cannot detect any kinetic barriers or element zero on these ships, except high energy output, wait, their fleet is now turning to intercept."

"Hmm, looks like they want a fight bring the fleet together, form a direct assault formation, rear for carriers and cruisers and frigates in three by five formation of frigates, we should concentrate fire on their defenders and then suppress, deploy fighters after first volley."

The admiral had only 250 ships to throw at the Anomia defenders and 50 support vessels from the other species here to only participate for ground operations not open space battles.

Nihlus and Varris watched from their frigate as the battle was about to commence.

"Do you think we will be victorious?" Varris asked.

"If you mean take the planet and sustain heavy casualties then yes, it probably will be a victory." Nihlus said grimly.

XXXXX

Vance was watching as the fleet stayed their course, the unknown alien fleet quickly took up position, their forward advance was made of smaller ships less than 200m long but these vessels were numerous, the rear was much more heavier, 500-700m ships in the mid and 1km long ships at the back, even though Anomia's defence fleet was strong they couldn't win a fight against three hundred ships.

The Anomia fleet was nearly out gunned and outnumbered six to one, but they were not outmatched, the ships faced each other off.

Vance ordered for all MACs to charge and wait on his orders.

"Send a message to their lead ship, we do not wish for hostilities but we will defend ourselves if provoked, we do not wish for conflict in our space, so we ask for them to depart from our space, consider these words carefully." He said.

The message went over and was understood but the Admiral simply dismissed the message as a joke, the attack at the relay, this was an attack on them.

"Sir we detecting high energy spike in enemy fleet, there…" The ship was struck, it knocked the crew back just once but inertial compensators activated.

"Volley one from enemy ships…"

"FIRE" He ordered.

The defenders returned their volley; the cruisers sent tungsten slugs across the deep expanse of space at the turian and their allied ships.

The 600kg slug struck with devastating force, the first wave of frigates vanished from sight as the slugs completely obliterated them; the fleet suffered a first wave casualty of 47 while the Anomia defenders lost 10.

"Continue to put the pressure on them, get next target solutions and prepare second volley, MAC platforms are free to engage at will."

XXXXX

Fov'rrias was horrified, the first volley had caught the enemy ships by surprise, but he ships were far more resilient than he first thought, they left barely a dent in the ships, 10 for 47 didn't seem like very good odds.

"Deploy fighters, sortie and then get us within GARDIAN laser range, we will continue to fire and advance." The fleet was more in danger fighting in space than it was in ship to ship.

XXXXX

"Sir Enemy advancing ahead, we cannot hold position, most likely they're trying to overrun us, they have appeared to have launched fighters and begun to move their troop transports towards Anomia."

Another wave of MAC rounds from the enemy fleet hammer the defenders, but they held strong.

"Set HEAT missiles from 1-4 and launch barrage, get the second fleet to break off and defend the platforms we'll hold here and alert colonel Cody, he's going to have visitors."

"Sir yes sir."

XXXXX

The defence platforms and fleet began their deployment of fighters, Long-swords and Sabre fighters launched from hangar bays and engaged the opposing forces.

As the fighters engaged, tracer and missiles covered the expanse of space between the two forces, gauss rounds and auto-cannon fire turned the small and nimble fighters of the council species into scattered pieces of debris.

While the battle continued, the turian and allied ships began deployment over Anomia, a few escort frigates made their way to the surface along with the 50 allied ships begun their descent into the atmosphere.

Among them were Nihlus and Varris.

XXXXX

Caldera point, 14:00

Jack and Luke ran through the base, alarms blaring across the city, people were in a panic the only time there was the same alarm was invasion, and this was no drill. Jack had received alert orders from command that enemy forces had arrived in system.

He and his brother were now mobilising with the 15 other companies under the direction of Major Williams who had set command up inside of the city, rushing to their post with their platoon, the 1st battalion of the Marauders were gearing up, along with the militia companies which held the city.

Arriving at the barracks Jack ordered.

"Richard, and Mick we need to get the mass drivers active across the city, where's Li?" He asked.

The bald headed blonde teen explained. "He headed to the generator already sir."

"Right then we should get the warthogs mounted; get the teams to move out." He ordered.

"Sir yes sir." The sergeants went to their assigned teams.

"Luke, get the second company to reinforce west and the first light armoured to support Graham."

"Consider it done." He said.

As the defenders prepared a pack of frigates appeared with a carrier, the ships set a perimeter outside the city and began their deployment.

XXXXX

The planet was under attack on three territories, Viscos and Longan territory as well as the northern Hypress peaks, but the highest concentration was at Hazed path park, the largest area in which they could deploy and secure to provide the most assistance, the lines between Heather Fields and Hypress could be severed and it could isolate Caldera from ground support from command at EC1.

Data gathered as the battle continued, the ONI AI alerted UNSC forces for immediate arrival estimated time 3-5 days.

XXXXX

14:30 L1

Vance watched as another MA round struck the 'Few and None', the shields were barely holding but they had survived, as they battle had continued the first fleet was no longer in existence, twenty of the original fifty five in the fleet.

Though they had destroyed over 75 in ship to ship, the Anomia defence fleet was no longer capable of continuing. Now fleeing to L9 to regroup with the 2nd fleet and the remaining defence platforms Vance had now been more than ever convinced that this was more than a challenge for the defenders of Anomia.

XXXXX

Seven Gates, Eastern command Viscos territory 16:00

An explosion came from the battle outside, Cody was still trying to get the defenders organised, the entire planet was under attack but not in such volume as the Viscos territory, he had the caldera point city drop out of com, and the dig site at Hazed Path, but this was just the minority of problems.

"Get me Shanxi command." He ordered.

"Yes sir." The com officer said.

The connection to command came through, and Anderson appeared.

"So you're still alive I see."

"Yeah not as bad as you'd think." Another shell detonated not far.

"The UNSC is sending support but, it will take three days." Cody knew just as well, UNSC couldn't send major support since clean-up of loyalist factions.

"Well looks like we're at square one again."

"Yeah looks like it, sorry Cody, Shanxi cannot come to your aid, if there is an enemy reinforcement's on approach the other core worlds need defending."

"I understand but is there any support from Pyros?"

"No the Redeemer division don't have sufficient ships to get there and there are barely any trained Redeemer companies left."

"Then I guess we are alone."

XXXXX

Hazed Path Park, Dig site Alpha

Andrew scrambled up the walkway, gunfire chased his feet, the entire area became a shooting gallery, rounds pinged off the wall next to him, the alien fleet arrived at the worst possible time, transportation for the artefacts at the forerunner installation hadn't been complete.

Command needed the area completely isolated, but this course of action was well out of reach now.

The defence of the dig site came as a priority from ONI but command wanted the area destroyed to remove any vital data or intelligence.

He was drawn to commands decision, but ONI ordered their teams to delay and hold, they needed vital data retrieved before detonation.

An explosion overhead sent three marines flying, the defenders didn't have any heavy weapons, and the only armour support they had was gone to the Aspire.

"Get inside; we'll hold our ground inside the base." He yelled.

The company fell back, dragging their wounded behind them; the marine company fell inside and sealed the doors.

XXXXX

Nihlus had finished the review of the battle in space, 125 ships were destroyed and 25 in need of repairs, the admiral Fov'rrias survived, though he broke his arm when rail cannons from an opposing ship fired on his.

Varris had been sent out to secure the relic site, though he wouldn't be back for a while, the humans managed to seal themselves inside the structure.

The battle report to the hierarchy wasn't going to be good, and the report to the council was most likely the worse.

XXXXX

Liara had never been much of a combatant or learnt how to fight as well as other asari commandoes have, but she knew how to protect herself. Arrival in the system with her fellow scientists they witnessed the terrifying battle between the human forces and the turian; it hadn't ended well for the fleet.

Now being on the ground she felt vulnerable, though she did stay close to her fellow scientist and guards, they were there to research the structure the humans had sealed themselves into.

The turian spectre Varris was leading the first teams to clear the rooms for the science team.

Another interesting individual was a salarian named Mordin Solus was part of their team; he was in charge of protection as well as study of the humans.

"Wait, turian soldier's dead, large region punctured at close range, large projectile, obsolete, effective, most likely rifleman nearby." He said quickly.

Carefully navigating around the corner he kept his eyes out for movement, a small amount of shuffling and then… 'CRACK' Mordin fired his pistol; the round went through whoever was waiting, the person slumped slightly still managing to get a grip on his rifle.

"Nice shot." An asari commando said.

"No need to thank, just doing my job." He said moving over to the body.

Lifted the body up, he realised the person was still barely alive, but there was more of a surprise to the science team, it was a teenager, younger than others they had seen, the large hole made through his torso was obvious of the injury sustained from Mordin's pistol.

Scanning he observed interesting amount of data.

"Young, genetic strand seems different, no, wait, change code, now reset scan, this boy, was genetically altered."

The scientists were disturbed, genetic experimentation was one thing they truly did not want, especially to children.

"So wait he's just a child?" Another asari asked.

"More or less, under gone extensive changes, body capable of surviving harsh conditions, strength increase, height increase, neural growth increase, the body is completely adapted for open warfare."

"Why would they do something like this to themselves?"

"Most likely conflict, world before landing was scorched, areas destroyed, and cities partially in ruins, most likely external conflict."

"So there was a war and they engineered their children to fight back?"

"Scanned other bodies, some older some younger, but all are under twenty here most likely own decision to accept."

"What is the life expectancy?"

"Originally one hundred, though the augmentations made have changed this, and other humans."

"So were fighting teenagers?" A turian asked.

"Yes, but no longer children, they are built for conflict, will be costly for us."

"The Krogan pale in comparison now." Another scientist retorted.

Liara watched the conversation of the human augmentation, she just didn't want to know, the body there was already enough to dissuade her.

XXXXX

A grenade exploded in the hallway, the turians were getting closer and closer, though it had been near suicide, they had lost nearly three times as many troops trying to take the hallways than the rooms.

The humans were resisting them every step of the way.

Another grenade exploded as they reached the main chamber, Varris watched as they entered the chamber, a massive object stood before them, a mass relay with multiple and strange things on it, he couldn't believe his eyes, but the battle came back, a rifle round went through the skull of another trooper.

The humans had taken advantage of the turians lapse in thinking, and were gunning them down, the 50cal that was mounted above chewed ammo out, and the marines taking snipping positions picked out the stragglers.

Varris watched as a squad was blown to pieces by a grenade launcher from the humans; it sent bits and pieces flying.

The fighting intensified as more troops began pouring in, Varris could see the commander of the defenders, and a young man with glasses was ordering and fighting, but distracted by his other trooper, Varris took aim.

XXXXX

"Damn it, hurry up, we can't wait or hold them back, we need to destroy the data and surrender."

"Just wait another minute." The ONI spook said.

"We don't have a minute…" As Andrew was turning around a hyper velocity round went through his neck and torso, his glasses fell as he hit the metal ground, he couldn't breathe, the continued exchange of gunfire continued muffled by the blood coming out of his mouth.

His sight was darkening. "We held the line…"

XXXXX

Varris watched as the commander dropped down, he didn't feel as much remorse, but he had respected the decision to remove the commanding officer.

The science team arrived in the doorway of the chamber the turians were in the process of taking, but it was at a stalemate, they could see that the humans had held and the turians were now reinforced enough to take them.

Though it was a bloody sight, turian troops littered the ground between them and the defenders.

"Surrender, this is your only chance, we're giving you an option, it would be foolish not to consider."

The humans did nothing more than wait, a few conversed, and then one yelled back.

"What are the terms of this surrender?"

"You will be allowed to leave, though will be accounted as POWs, you will not be harmed, and wounded would be treated."

"Fine, you have out troops surrender but not ours."

The troops were confused; then there were three spine chilling gunshots that followed.

Liara in her head would remember that for the rest of her life, along with the entire science team.

The survivors were burnt and injured but all alive, about 45 of the soldiers came out from their cover without their weapons and marched forwards or limped.

The turians quickly secured these teens, and searched the area.

Varris was shocked, the corpse of three officers, all teen's in combat armour and one in black clothing, and they killed themselves to remove any vital data that might fall into their hands.

"Sir we can't get anything from their computers, the data has been destroyed; these humans left no loose ends."

"Well we should honour them as fellow soldiers, get them over to camp."

"Yes sir."

The turian hierarchy was not going to like the report.

XXXXX

Just wait for the next rewrite.


	16. Promo

THIS IS PROMO FOR THE NEXT UPCOMING STORY

This is just a small preview of the next stories:

Age of Ascension (This will be ME1)

The First Contact War: IVI (In the time between Age of revelation and ME1)

Chronicles of the IVI: Prelude to Salvation

Story by:

Valence 1st-10th

Anomia Marauders: 11th-21st

Pyros Redeemers: 3rd-50th

Viscos Forgers: 1st-9th

Tertiary Saviours

Vindicators

Crusaders

Nova Fate: 10th-51st

Marauders

Reave-T1

Revenants

Liberators

1st Bourne Inheritors

ADST 1

(These are in my stories- Later one as well)

Welcome to the Chronicles of the IVI, this sim is made for those who enjoy the stories passed since the Covenant War to the First Contact War. This series is soon to be available as a usable sim for Omni tool 7.1 made by Hyperion Studios and New Vision studios. "Live life, and embrace tomorrow."

This series is based on the famous series known as the IVI the 151st also known as the 'Mythic' the series was based on the Human Covenant War to the beginnings of the First Contact War, these documented reports and real time records from the memory tags of soldiers and sim saves has combined into the largest Sim game and Vid in known galactic history.

The series though will not be available till 2589/1/17 and those who pre order Limited Edition from Game stop or from specific retailers will receive the Modified Omni Tool N1.01 with the colour and design, there are also the bonus content with pre order, model of Spartan V (Marauder), Actual N.1 visor, a copy of the book, and one journal and data pad modified to the game colour and design.

The people who order the Legendary Edition will receive, Omni Tool N1.01, Modifiable model of Spartan V, Combat visor with helmet, a copy of book and one free ticket to the launch of the sim: IVI, Journal, Data pad, Combat case, IVI Bag, Special avatar add on and data.

The last pre order would be for: Mythic. The Mythic is packed with many things; it includes all of Limited and Legendary, but now possesses one suit of Vindicator armour (Replica), chrome model of DMR, replica of NS 9inch combat knife, full family tickets or 1 week ticket for individual, model of MBT Destroyer 910, Field computer and a single draw card for an ATV Recon bike.

IVI Story

The story of the IVI is based off the Human Covenant War to the First Contact War, in the bestselling holographic novel to paper based, the story goes through the history of the children who lived and fought in these wars.

1st novel is called: Prelude to salvation

Before the end of the war the children of humanity flee left and right, the oncoming harbingers of death are relentless and man is facing its near end. The survivors flee to the mysterious worlds known as Nova Stratus to survive the coming oblivion and hope to live another day.

2nd novel: Salvation

This is the period in which the war is being fought on Nova Stratus's front door; this is 5 years before the end. The story advances you over time, but if you advance your character after 5 years you arrive here, this is a time when the people of Nova Stratus have no idea how close things are get.

3rd novel: The word of Vindication

The war hits the front of Nova Stratus and the people are thrown into turmoil, now the war gears for the most intense battles and cinematic development so far, it reaches the point of breaking as the people fight a losing war.

The conflict will evolve into the betrayal of the Elites and the great schism.

4th novel: Saviour

The end is here, the legions of soldiers now come to deal war with the covenant and there is nothing you can do but buckle up and get ready for the end. Faith will guide you to the war of Tertiary and the resurrection of the Forerunners greatest accomplishment, the great inheritor of their will, Vincent of none.

5th novel: Redemption through spirit and fire

The covenant has shattered, but the threat remains, gather the remaining forces of the elites to your command and help bring justice upon the false prophets heads, save the rest and live. This is the third last chapter before the first contact war.

This will guide you to the war against the loyalists and save the galaxy from the prototype super weapon called 'Divine Interpretation' the weapon like the Halos and the Forerunner worlds.

6th novel: Coming Dawn

The war is over but the threats of the loyalists are still real, now facing the remanent of the covenant, humanity must decide whether to stay the path of reconstruction or change them.

This leads you to travel the Nova Stratus and gather resources for your forces and build an army, you may choose to reinforce your world or build up your city.

This will also lead to the First Contact war.

7th novel: Freedom and Liberty

The new age has arrived for humanity and now you seek a new adventure, there is now a mass relay that was discovered, you can access this mass relay and journey to the galactic community, but there is trouble brewing.

ONI had sent a ship called the Aspire, and now with it sending a message of imminent war, you must prepare.

You can either set yourself and your ship to prepare for war, or to plan ahead and hamper the coming progress of the turians and allied help.

There is also missions in the Traverse and Terminus systems, Omega and the Quarian Migrant Fleet, you can build relationships or build hardened veterans.

The fate of the war is now in your hands.

Going along the story, the sim will allow the player to interact as any individual, using your options you choose strength level, health and skills, you can modify your character to only the set limits and there are barriers involved.

This first chapter of the game and sim will allow the player to interact and learn how to play, this will also give a background story to the creation of the Spartan IV and V programs but the player will not be allowed to act as a Spartan.

Choose able rank and characters: These characters will change in gameplay, such as the vessel you possess later, or the cities you can build, or worlds you can terra form.

UNIT:

Natural Soldier- Strong and has plenty of stamina and skill

Thinker- Tactician and brilliant field unit, bring down fire, and call in the marines

Driver- Drive a big gun

Scout- Recon and speed are your speciality

Marauder- Above the rank and file, you go and hit hard and fast and never look back

Pilot- You can learn to fly and reach the sky, but don't get blown to pieces while doing it

Sniper- You can see them, but they can't see you

Medic- You can comfort people while they die, and save others, and kill some

Hacker- Be sneaky and disarm bombs and set really cool traps, the RC-Bomb and stealth mines are only for those who pre ordered before the changes on the 12th

Engineer- Not much to say, fix things and blow things up, put turrets up by calling down HEV pods, modify tanks and vehicles, and make things fly or move

There will be more ranks available in gameplay.

Non-Canon to the story, this is for those who complete the game the first time or pre-ordered or was given permission

-Biotic or Natural gift 'Telekinetic'

-Aliens? You may play as non-human, asari, turian, salarians, quarian is allowed for quarian players

-Covenant? That's right the covenant are allowed in the game, but this is before they are betrayed, this allows player to witness some awesome battles and things of the Human Covenant War, but please viewer discretion is advised, there are many religiously harmful content and many disturbing realities

-Elites… They were the most feared and most dangerous opponents, and they still are…

-Brutes, this is just for krogan players.

Other features

Forge world-

Tertiary- the world of mysteries and many possibilities, you can construct amazing maps and gameplay, this is just a gigantic open field where you construct land area and mass, water is usable and mountainous terrain and buildings

Fabled- a mystic age of paragons and renegades, here you decide adventures and journeys, the world of fable is at your command, good or evil. (I love Fable 1-2 never forget 2)

This also includes models from galaxy of fantasy.

Junction- the endless cities of become your playground make your city now!

Another mod is called- Arms Race

Here you build armies of troops at your command in civilisations of the galaxy, there will be krogan mods and some others but these must be downloaded.

3rd person interactions

1st person interventions

Build up your forces on planets and strike at the heart of your opponents

There will be bases that can expand and continue to.

Theatre mode

This will allow any player to go over their past gaming history and access their recoded logs.

There are multiple mode functions such as:

Film- Filming your every move

Edit- You can add specific mods and functions

Production- Create a short or long game series

Medals and Achievements

This allows players to access achievements gained from playing

There will be fun rewards for specific achievements and commendations

Collect armour parts and upgrades from achievements

Armoury

Here is where you can choose your upgrades and make personal choices; there are also a number of upgrades for weapons and personal use.

The player may choose gender and characters, but one may be in use at only one time.

This also allows use of non-human characters and special add-ons.

Matchmaking

This is a multiplayer function, it uses the same principle as the actual game just more functions and allows gamers to interact.

Warnings

Please note the game has to be updated monthly of news and activities.

There is also use of AI in the network design and most gameplay is met by advanced VI programming.

Sim usage is advised for six to eight hours only.

Thank you and have a pleasant day.


	17. Chapter 11

CH11

This is our last chapter before ASCENSION.

Hope you liked this series and BTW this was never completed… I am absolutely serious.

BTW mental note to everyone, Duran is Graves it was stated in CH2 that he had his first name.

(Military Standard) 19/1/2554

09:00 Crew quarters

Halsey sat at the desk of the ONI scientist Dr Valerie Miller, who had also kindly shared the same room with her, though the coffee she was drinking was still warm from three hours ago which surprised her at the fact the ship had small coffee warmers in an advanced war ship and in her labs nothing more than the cold desk.

'Times change quickly, still though there is no decent coffee, but the Danish was nice.'

She put the coffee down on the warmer and looked at her monitoring screens on each of the Spartans current set of activities. Fred and Linda were at the shooting range comparably seeing how effective new gear was and how the newer Spartan V were. Lower hangar bay, Mendez was checking weapon stores with the 343rd ODST Company, and Tom and Lucy were spending time together on the observation deck.

Katana team was also in the gym, practicing against the other Spartan V, which amazingly they held well against the III and the young captain Karl who defeated Liam in three set rows, he didn't notice but an auspicious pair of eyes was following him. Lieutenant Grey was running at top speeds with Kelly on the treadmill and losing ground, as per her usual routine of R&R.

Halsey had done her background checks on all of the Spartan V, they had each lost families during the war or still have family back on Anomia, unlike the quiet tone about the origins of Spartan the people of Nova Stratus vaguely know of the origins of these Spartans.

And she was surprised to read there were more in active training for the UNSC, and the ones here were a part of the hundreds that were combat capable, she couldn't help but wonder.

'If there were so many here and they fought the war against the Covenant before, maybe we could have actually won, but that's just theory.'

She shook the thought out, she had enough guilt of losing the remaining Spartan II and III but with the V it seemed more like they had some freedoms but this was still on her basis of her work.

She looked through the data files collected on surviving candidates, they had most unique physical forms or the exact gene sequences necessary to make the most viable Spartans, but she had never known about this place.

'No wonder the UNSC and ONI are now moving them out, the Spartans here provide a definite answer to all remaining Covenant loyalists and factions.'

She flipped through to Rey 0159, it had nothing more than black ink and parts of his history, but nothing detailing his origins and only he was created on Anomia, this raised her suspicions about what the ONI had done to him.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Dr Valerie walked in, her silvery blonde hair flowing like grass behind her as she took to another chair, sitting down hard with a sigh of exhaustion.

Halsey asked. "So, what have you been up to?"

Valerie responded in a curious manner. "Oh nothing, just the report on the performance of Spartan V, and how well they're progressing on the mission, just had to send to ONI."

"Oh so it's not like you're wandering about looking for Karl are you?" Halsey said cheekily.

At this point Valerie froze; she knew that Halsey had caught her sneaking about near Karl. "Oh why do you have to hack the surveillance cams over the ship?"

"Because I would like to know what my Spartans and your Spartans are doing, and besides you're not the only one who likes Karl." She was smiling as she said it.

Valerie was now listening more but more focused on what she said. "What do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is there are others who have their eyes on the prize Dr Valerie."

"Well, I have known Karl since his graduation and have been the one to have known him better than anyone else, besides I have tried to get close but military protocols keep him at arm's length." Valerie said sure enough.

"Well I can't complain with how you're so sure. Just don't get to him too late, besides Spartans aim to please."

Valerie broke off from the talk and went back to work, furiously trying to search through the surveillance data on which person it might be. Halsey simply smiled at the fact that Valerie had no clue on how to get closer to Karl; she simply went back to the console and started the decryption of data on the Forerunner data core they had recovered.

10:30 Bridge

The crew of the _Aspire _had been running from the council races they had encountered, the transition to the neighbouring star cluster went much smoother from their run; they hid from patrols and watched for transmissions, the alien ships weren't capable of pursuing, and the crew knew it.

Captain Graves watched the planet below, the crew was on alert, it had been over a day since running from Amphora, the loss of Rey 0159 had been of concern to all of the Venerators when they had to leave one of theirs behind, and they never leave their family behind,.

The problem with a rescue was that it seemed nearly impossible without the necessary manpower or extra resources, not to mention numbers.

The extranet as Tanya described was an interstellar means of communications over the relays, she had hacked as much of the communications between the fleet waiting at relay 314 and their governments, the turian hierarchy as they now identified with the many other alien governments had begun to form an massive fleet for the invasion of Nova Stratus, the alert from the _Aspire _had probably alerted the defensive forces but it wouldn't be enough, the war with the Covenant had exhausted them.

The defenders would either be overwhelmed or suffer a war of attrition, the results would be the same as the Covenant, and UNSC couldn't survive another war on its end, the ONI had known there was a chance of meeting another species but not another one that had been technologically inferior, when the crew saw the number of ships they had been sure that they'd never win.

But the fact the turians had been using lower class of MACs and fighters seemed rather pitiful, although not as strong in firepower, they had the ability to overwhelm them.

But even with sheer numbers it would be costly, the turians had also received more support from other species, the Council species had reinforced them with dozens of ships and personnel, the Council itself had sent their own specialists called Spectres to ensure the protection of their space and determine if humanity was a threat.

The crew and company had been sure now that they had no other option, they needed to make it back to Nova Stratus, at all costs and defend, the plan had been simple at first but another thing had caught their attention, an asari reporter over the extranet had reported the interrogated of a human prisoner.

The Spartans now knew that Rey had survived, but the report also sent had detailed the forces of humanity were only hostile because of a disastrous first contact that had destroyed their people; the information had been extracted from the prisoners mind by the asari Spectre.

The thought of Rey giving information was far-fetched, but from what Tanya learnt the asari had telepathic capabilities, this now concerned them the crew had never been trained to deal with telepathy, but thankfully due to their intensive training they knew he could probably hold out, the other thing was that the turians hadn't found them so Rey had managed to keep some information out of their reach.

The Hierarchy issued a statement saying that humanity couldn't be left alone and the technological advancements that humans possessed also were considered a threat, the turians placed that humans as a danger and that needed to be dealt with, the public seemed happy with their subjugation and control, the Council decided not to fully push themselves directly but showed some support to what was occurring and seemed to be holding back until needed.

The fact that they now were mobilising a number of ships said they were going to make a push and soon, the crew now had to plan a new strategy, they couldn't move through the front door, they can't get support and they can't surrender at all costs.

The crew needed to continue to explore and hopefully discover a means of taking them down on this side of the relay rather than risk throwing their lives away meaninglessly, the _Aspire _will have to make a run around the sector until they could find a means of slowing the council forces down.

But now thanks to the quarians that were rescued they found a means of getting help, without going around the sector. The Aspire had now set course to a star system with the fleet, the trip would take a few hours in slip-space, and the recent upgrades to the ship had improved the speed and accuracy of jumps, the influx fields and integrity reflectors had helped with the transitions from Covenant technology.

Captain Duran had mulled over the past few days, the fact that the Militia and UNSC now faced a new threat had worn the entire crew on edge, the new conflict would be bloody, and the colonies now that only started reconstruction would fall quickly, the thought of being conquered by an alien species had not been appealing.

The intercom beeped. "Captain we're approaching system in five minutes."

Duran acknowledged and moved out of his room, he walked to the lift and arrived at the bridge, the quiet bustle of monitors and techs, Tanya greeted him.

"Captain we're now in system."

The ship came out of slip-space; the star system glowed in front of them the only thing they noticed was a large fleet of literal thousands that now floated where they could see.

Valerie who also just arrived on the bridge couldn't believe the sight; there had been a mix of thousands of ships large to small that hung there.

Duran quickly ordered. "Tanya, activate the stealth field reflector. Get behind that fleet, and bring our quarian friends up here at once."

The AI nodded and suddenly the ship in front of the massive fleet suddenly started to vanish.

XXXXX

Duran watched as his ship approached the flotilla of ships at a different angle, and then suddenly sensors beeped, the tactical officer Gregory said. "Sir calculating massive concentration of energy signatures, there's more than fifty thousand vessels."

Duran felt as though the blood in his veins froze but asked. "How many are armed?"

Gregory checked again. "Sir, they aren't all armed but most have certain defences; they seem to be trying to scan for us."

Just then the quarian that Katana team encountered entered the bridge, slightly surprised.

"The flotilla, were home." She said slightly hopeful.

Duran moved to the scanner and confirmed what Greg had said, the fleet had been scanning their approach but couldn't see them, and then suddenly a communication opened up. "Unidentified craft you are approaching the Quarian migrant fleet, identify your selves."

Duran was now in a more negotiable situation, the quarian stepped forwards.

"Please captain, let me talk to the flotilla, and then let us confirm it."

Duran asked. "Tanya, do you think we can trust them?"

Tanya did a scan and ran through her calculations; the chances of this race being hostile didn't seem very likely, the number of vessels she ran through the database of galactic species showed the Quarians had ships in their fleet over 300 years old and were neither in favour of the council.

She said to Duran. "Sir we shouldn't try to make ourselves any more enemies, and the chances of those ships actually out running and out gunning us one on one are very unlikely, besides our quarian friend can get us a meeting."

Duran nodded, he heard what she said.

He ordered for the light wave barrier cloak down, the ship suddenly reappeared in front of the flotilla.

XXXXX

Aboard the Rayya, the Admiralty board saw the mystery ship de-cloaked, it had been shaped with hexagonal to boxy areas but was definitely intimidating and had the length nothing short of a cruiser, from the scans made by the fleet, detected the radiation spike when the ship came out of FTL, the Admirals were concerned, when the ship activated a cloaking device and was incapable of being detected there had been very few species capable of cloaking for extended periods of time, especially those who could actually visually vanish.

Korrel'Zorah a quarian admiral in his white enviro-suit and covered head watched the other three admirals debate whether or not to either destroy or allow the ship to approach.

"This ship, has not shown any sign of threatening us, so why attack, if this is a new species why not simply ask."

The admiral Dei'Xen vas Moreh retorted. "The reasons we don't ask is because we have more pressing matters at hand do we not?"

The admirals bickered over what course of action when a message came through from the mystery ship a projector came online. "This is Captain Duran Graves, UNSC _Aspire unto tomorrow, _we are a military research vessel and experimental stealth and scouting from an isolated sector of space we come with some survivors from a pirate attack, we have a crewmember here."

The quarian persons from the Cynaid came in the projector view.

"Admirals, this is Avi'rilo vas Idenna, I can confirm our situation."

The admirals in the room were stunned; the Cynaid was lost nearly 5 days ago.

Korrel asked. "Then your code phrase please."

"When little is found all must be gained, I gained for what must be found."

"Acknowledged, welcome back. Captain Duran?" Korrel said Duran came back to the projector.

The admirals reacted to the message and Korrel'Zorah who had decided to reply. "I am Admiral Korrel'Zorah of the quarian migrant fleet, why are you here for?"

"We arrived in sector, a short time ago, we don't mean any harm, but we would like to meet in person, with your permission I would like to have my ship dock so we can transfer the injured."

The admiralty board didn't see the harm in meeting and these people seemed opened to speaking. "We would be interested in meeting you in person, your ship will have to be decontaminated on arrival and precautions will be met, and all injured will be transferred."

Admiral Korvis asks him. "Are you sure, that we can trust meeting them?"

Korrel responded confidently. "Yes I'm sure there isn't any harm in meeting this new species, besides something about them as kind, if they had not saved the crew of the Cynaid."

XXXXX

The crew of the _Aspire_ was relieved at the moment the translator interpreted what had been exchanged; the captain was now able to meet these people.

The quarian left the bridge and headed to prepare the rest of the survivors for transfer to the Rayya.

But he had to choose his party carefully, the 151st company had volunteered but he knew these soldiers had been more trained out of reflex to shoot first rather than talk. He and Halsey and Valerie along with what Spartans were willing to go.

The security team involved Karl's choice of Venerators and Grey's squad of ODST, the team had gathered in the docking hatch, which in fact had been a cargo entrance; it had been the largest means of exiting the whole group.

As the ship docked, an external pressure bridge extended and latched to the other side, the delegation stepped out, walking to the other side they saw their welcoming committee, the beings standing in what Grey could make out were enviro-suits they began to move to meet them, the marines Karl brought with him were a little twitchy but held themselves.

The medical teams of the quarians hurried over and began moving the still injured few crewmembers.

The admirals were terrified when they saw the tall armoured figures, the sheer size dwarfed them by a whole more than two heads, the walking behemoths cleared the way for the Captain and another person, the quraian marines were cautious the fact there were five armoured soldiers didn't go well for them, but they hadn't provoked them so the situation relatively seemed under control.

Duran meet with four individuals, each seemed to have a high rank in the fleet, Duran extended a handshake and the one admiral he faced took it. "Greetings, I am Captain Duran."

The quarian replied. "And I am Korrel'Zorah, welcome captain Graves."

XXXXX

Halsey and Valerie both looked about during their walk through the quarians ship, Halsey debated the fact that if the UNSC would either help or not with the quarians abandonment from citadel space and let them into Nova Stratus or the fact that the quarian people had very weak immune systems and could be cured by the genetic therapy in UNSC easily, but were they willing to help.

Avi and the admirals were discussing amongst themselves of the opportunity.

The Spartans were not talking at all, just simply looking about, though Linda and Kelly were talking to Fi and Karl about what they thought, the two never replied most of the time, they were focused on tactical opinions of escape.

Fred who was walking close behind Halsey and Valerie wondered if the quarians were more like the Spartans, it seemed like the quarians were family like, and there were almost little problems because each member was needed to do what they could.

But he kept an open mind as to where they were.

XXXXX

The group walked along the Rayya, the marines we wondering how similar it looked to the orbital lounge back on Anomia but was more open and had windows and better lighting, the vessel was massive, it was probably 20 times larger than the Few and None itself, the admiral wondered why they were so far from home, and then Duran asked.

"What exactly happened to your people's home world?"

Korrel explained. The **quarians** are a nomadic species of humanoid aliens known for their skills with technology and synthetic intelligence. Since their homeworld Rannoch was conquered, the quarians live aboard the Migrant Fleet, a huge collection of starships that travel as a single fleet.

Other species tend to look down on the quarians for several reasons, the foremost of which being their supposed 'unleashing' of the geth upon the galaxy. This act led to the quarians' losing their embassy on the Citadel. Quarians are often viewed as beggars and thieves.

Because of the Flotilla's limited resources, quarians strip-mine the systems they pass through, which often puts them at odds with any species currently settled there. The Migrant Fleet also tends to drop off criminals on planets it passes, because the quarians cannot support a non-productive prison population—they simply lack the resources. However, life on the Migrant Fleet means quarians have unique skills.

Their nomadic life and exclusion from the Citadel mean that the concerns of the Citadel races don't particularly interest or impress them.

Duran could see their people's predicament, the fact that other species had not even helped with the quarians seemed cold on the Council, Duran asked. "Well, admiral's, we might have some interests at hand, the fact that our ship needs to get home and the reality that we might be able to help you, the UNSC may have been stretched out thin, but the local colonial forces wouldn't mind some assistance, this and the fact that most of our colonies had been through a number of things, the colonists of Nova Stratus may have something we can agree to though, we may be able to find a world suitable for your species survival, if you are willing to take a small risk."

Korrel and the other admirals were taken by surprise; the UNSC would actually help them, rather than abandon them, if they had enough time to find suitable worlds, but the UNSC already had problems and the only people that knew were them, if Duran and his crew made it home there was the distinct possibility of negotiating an agreement, but Korrel still had some questions that needed answering. "Do you wish to continue our talks aboard the _Aspire_ captain?"

With a curt nod from Duran they had headed towards the _Aspire, _the walk to the ship and then through the airlock, the delegation was intrigued and intimidated, the amount of weaponry and equipment could start a small but enduring war, the fusion core also stunned them, it had no need of refuelling except a replacement every few hundred years, and the computers on the ship seemed archaic but had advanced scanners and tools, the ship was a warship by any species standards but to the UNSC it was a stealth frigate.

As they walk past the barracks the admirals and some of the other quarian officers noticed something, the company stationed along with the armoured column had all been children, technically teenagers; the admirals wondered why they were using children.

Duran told Grey and his team to explain. "The colonies of Nova Stratus had only suffered a recent conflict, an alien species called the Covenant a homogeny of races attacked without provocation in exterminating humanity and almost won, the UNSC was desperately fighting, all but a hundred survived and maybe but there were hundreds of colonies we lost, the population had been reduced by the billions, all those who were fighting in our space were all volunteers and most of them teenagers or children orphaned, so we had no choice but gather who we could to survive."

The admirals felt shocked, the humans had suffered far worse than the quarian people, there had been some significant differences that anyone could see, but the UNSC had been desperate enough to start using children in warfare meant other things, the admirals couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards them, though Duran told them it had been alright.

"There are something's you can't change."

The trip to the bridge was uneventful, the entry was the sliding of the door, and then trouble happened, Tanya who the quarians had never known about, materialised on the display table with a graceful swirl of energy around her, the quarian admirals didn't know how to react; Tanya simply smiled and greeted them. "Welcome I am 2-4NY01 but you may call me Tanya."

Then admiral Raan simply stated. "You have an AI aboard your ship?"

Tanya looked offended, she replied with. "Yes but please address me by my name or my serial code please."

The admirals simply stood about surprised at Tanya, it wasn't until she asked. "Are you going to continue your tour yet?"

It snapped them out of curiosity and moved out of supposedly range of ear shot of Tanya.

Raan was the first to ask. "Why do you have an AI on board?"

"Because Tanya is the one who runs the ship, and she is the ship." Graves replied but knew where this might lead to.

Korrel and the other admirals were more than surprised or angry.

Admiral Raan asked. "You mean to say that you allow AI to pilot your ships?"

"Yes, our AI pilot and manage our vessels and complex facilities, they are our means of accurate FTL jumps and information."

Yahn'Gerrel was also stunned at such freedoms.

"So your AI haven't rebelled or attempted to run rampant against you?"

"No never, though when they reach a certain age, they tend to go rampant but not attack us necessarily but more like go insane, their life span is usually calculated and predicted though."

Things seemed pretty calm for the moment; it took a few minutes of discussion.

But Duran decided to ask.

"Admiral I was wondering if we could come to an agreement."

"What kind of agreement?" Korrel asked.

"A temporary alliance, or in this case cooperation, if the Aspire could get back to ICA space we could allow you take refuge in our space."

Korrel honestly was surprised that they were willing to allow such an agreement.

"Why would be so open?"

"Because we can, and we will, it isn't something absolutely hard, or impossible, there is a way, and if you really wanted to confirm our arrangement you just needed one of your people to come with us."

The admirals decided to talk about the offer, after half an hour.

Korrel said confidently.

"If you insist on this alliance, then we will send one representative."

"Then we can come to an agreement?"

"Yes."

Duran took out his hand and offered it, the admiral took the handshake: Everything now goes to-ASCENSION

(This was still WIP)

I had only completed this; the thing wasn't ready for another while


	18. Chapter 12

CH11

(I am sorry to say that the series is not going to make a full return only a partial one, there were things I realised I had yet to answer and a full rewrite will be in progress.)

Also the Ghosts of Onyx are going to be removed I have realised a definite flaw somewhere in the story as they need to appear in another story called: **World of Warcraft: Halo's Call**

(Here is the battle of Anomia, and also I am not slack to my soldiers, they deserve a better death than being slaughtered by biotic powers and BS. That was a low point in my view, these kids have been fighting a war, and if you've got a problem with how things are done by me… f*** off.)

20/1/2554

Anomia, Caldera Point Base

17:00

The city of Caldera Point now was choked, not with the cars fleeing or the citizens running in the roads and streets, but the sheer smell and sight and feel of heat from fire and ash that now choked the city.

Jack had been the witness of the war against the covenant for over a solid 4 years, he and his brothers were more than capable of surviving the effects of open warfare, and the smell was nothing new or old.

He had deployed along the city walls with the command team; they were ready as the alien intruders began their offensive. The walls of the city were designed after the covenant war, they were meant to provide a barrier against the enemy forces and stop the destruction of the city.

Now on the walls again, Jack felt right at home, running along with the teams they began their defensive measures.

A mass accelerator struck the defence wall, but due to the high ceramic plating and titanium honeycomb and reinforced experimental poly-carbon structure, the walls held the kinetic shells back. Jack was grateful for this at least.

He had been running between each point of the wall, the turians had come in force, the estimates were the artillery raining in from outside were of 50-75 long ranged mobile batteries, the hostiles had not managed to get into the city though.

But the intensity of combat was increasing dramatically, running down the battlements of the wall Jack found himself running towards the missile defence batteries, if the turians broke past their defences it was going to take an army to push them back.

Another mass accelerator slammed into the wall, shaking the defenders.

'Oh glory to us all…' Jack thought as he sprinted.

Reaching the missile launcher he was greeted by gunnery chief Brandon.

"Sir, we have a problem, the batteries are firing but the damn raptor faces keep sending down their fighters, we can't win without air superiority, and there aren't enough launchers, the spotters located a number of drop-ships in bound from the east gate."

It didn't take a genius to know that things were going to get far worse.

"Hell, get your troops to man the batteries for as long as possible, if worse comes to worse destroy the batteries and fall back." Jack said as he began to move towards command.

"Sir yes sir."

XXXXX

Luke and his squad were scattered across the length of Caldera, no big surprise there, he watched as the reinforced titanium and ceramic super structure of the defence wall took a pounding from their enemies.

If support did not arrive soon they'd all be dead, thankfully to the pre-planned measures made by command, the city was most likely going to hold against the tide. Wary as he was he wasn't going to let anyone take his home again.

"Come on, hold your ground. Support isn't coming till you get your job done, you hear?" He yelled.

"Sir yes sir." A muffled reply came.

"Good." He said reaching for his radio.

"Command, we need an armour support here now."

A crackle of communications came to him. "Roger that, however due to the breach in sector east 12-19, the armour has been called to support them, you will not receive aid for another three hours."

"Command, that's bullshit, the entire five hundred and fifth is stranded here, we need armour support or else we'll have more than that breach to worry about."

"I'm sorry lieutenant, but support is not available in your sector."

Turning the mike off he swore, there was no way to hold off the amount of damage the walls were taking, and it was a matter of time before they too, were breached and forced to fall back. Looking about at his platoon, they saw the same thing; they weren't going to hold out.

"Alright, we can't hold, fall back as soon as L1-9 is compromised, and also if both of the AA and the Linear cannon. Do you understand me sergeant?" He asked.

"Sir yes sir. Where will you be going?"

"I'm going to go get my older brother…"

XXXXX

High in orbit

A large ship flew over the skies; the destroyer of the ICA orbited and watched as the planet below was consumed in conflict, on board the ship Kardel watched as the planet burned. He had only managed to get into space thanks to the shuttle waiting for him.

"Captain, when do we arrive at the DZ?"

"In approximately 30 minutes, sir."

"Good, prepare my drop pod for launch, I need to get down there."

XXXXX

Aspire- en route to Sigma relay

Duran watched as the ship came out of the FTL, the white of space calmed and vanished as they came into real space; the ship began alert 1 for combat status on any hostile ships. After their talks with the quarians they had made a bee line straight to the relay.

"What do we have ensign?"

"Nothing sir, there seems to be no activity anywhere near the relay, there are residual traces from the turians who passed recently. But there are no signatures present." He replied.

"Good, take us in, I'd like to get home and start teaching them not to mess with us."

"That's you and practically everyone in Nova Stratus." Grey said exiting the lift.

"Grey, are you feeling any better soldier?" He asked getting from the chair.

"Could be, the mission was a success, and I think the quarians are in for a surprise once we get to anomia."

"How are our ambassadors any ways?" Duran asked.

"They're doing fine, they're just getting settled in, though they're still getting used to their new sleeping arrangements, and their new company. They're just as surprised that the crew is just teens, though any of the other council species as they explained are just as likely to be surprised."

"Well we didn't get raised to live for no purpose or for making houses; we're here to fight wars, and to die winning, or die trying."

"That's the only thing that they find disturbing, and they seem apprehensive to accept that we are a military power that runs on our youngest population."

"We never wanted this for ourselves, but when we're pushed hard enough we tend to throw out all the books and go straight for the most necessary thing... survival."

"We all know, sir." He said staring into space.

"It's beautiful isn't it?"

"You mean the beautiful and vast expanse of the universe around us, or just the open vacuum of space?" He asked.

"The universe…"

"Well as beautiful as it is, it isn't as welcoming, wars have been fought and lost, and we're still fighting ours."

At that moment the ship entered the grasp of the relay.

"All hands brace for relay jump, and please gear up for combat status one, we will be making an combat drop over Anomia."

XXXXX

Caldera

"Get down." A medic yelled.

Another explosion rocked the area, the turians had finally broken through the defenders defences, and were now pouring into the city, and the streets were now filled with gunfire and explosions. The sight was too reminiscent to the covenant, just that their enemies were suffering heavy casualties while doing so.

Jack walked to his post near the remains of the M350 heavy recovery vehicle that had been part of his command post, now walking through the remains of west gate. He could see the desperate effort the turians had made to break the fortifications only to have gotten a handful through.

The battle was far from over, west and east had both fallen, and now the east gate had fallen they could not counter attack, there were tasked with holding their ground. The civilians were inside, but many were still trapped outside, and some had decided to aid in the war, many of those who had joined were all volunteers, much like him.

Another volley of MAs impacted at the walls, sending some plates to come crashing down; there was little hope that the walls were able to hold any more damage. Jack expected that the city was going to be sieged for another week, or destroyed; the turians weren't like any other opponent, using any means to win war, even to their death.

"Fuck them, this isn't over, this is just the beginning." He said kicking a casing.

"So this is where you've been hiding?" A voice asked.

"Luke so glad you could make it. We got more shit heading for us, and I don't mean the usual, I mean the large one that these bastards are planning to dump on our poor heads." He said turning about to see his younger brother.

"It looks like we're going down together, again." He said watching the skies.

"Yeah it does, doesn't it? These fuckers aren't giving us a break, and soon they'll have their cheap victory. I'd say fuck it; we'll make them taste blood." Jack replied cocking his assault rifle.

"Has command issued any new orders?" Luke asked.

"Command went silent nearly an hour ago; we haven't had any com chatter from the others since three hours ago."

"So where does that leave us?"

"Nowhere, thanks to the fuckers, we need to regroup our forces and begin an evacuation, the civilians aren't the turians targets, it's the military installations, and seeing as we rigged a fusion bomb inside. We're needed to get the fuck clear in the next two and a half hours." Jack said gathering his gear.

"That won't be easy, the turians are scattered all over the place, and how big did you say that bomb was?" Luke asked with concern.

"Big enough to level the ten hundred meters in all directions, the fusion core is small and was designed to destroy only the base, though it'll provide the necessary means of getting us and every other person out of here. A fusion explosion is enough to get anyone's attention."

"Then what the hell are we waiting for?"

The two walked off to their warthog, they were going to need a lot of luck to get things done. Passing the car about and turning back to the remains of one of the platoons.

"Get off your asses, we need to get moving, corporal, get your med teams to the M350HRV and clear the city." He ordered.

"Sir yes sir."

XXXXX

Winter Contingency

Anomia, Heather Fields

Matthew cleared another yard, his suit punctured in various places and his visor slightly cracked in the front. He had been running since the battle at the city, the marines had held the defence but it wasn't enough. They had crumbled after four hours of continuous bombardment from range, and now he had escaped from the city via underground network, he had made his run.

The reason for him being there was of two reasons. One reason was that he had been stationed there to provide support to the ODST and marauders stationed there. And his second reason was because he had been promoted and commended for his actions back in 2550.

Watching the approach from his hiding spot, he made his way out and crawled to another position not far from the warzone. His helmet detected the traces of heat emission and energy that the turians were using. He had gotten an earlier report from the HIGH COM that the turians based their technology on a mysterious energy element.

Thanks to their indiscriminate use of energy, they were lighting the entire area up for him to make their positions out.

He had received the Winter Contingency orders prior to the attack and followed the standard operational procedures. He had gathered as much ammo and Intel and dragged himself out to find out what the turians were planning. Command had not been specific in its decision to send him out, but they advised that the Intel gathered would bring about a better end to this new conflict.

Carefully negating his way across the terrain he headed to a nearby road, once there he had to walk another thirty kilometres to the west and stay along a secure route to an ONI shelter. And then from there he had been ordered to gather further Intel and report in daily, he would also have access to an AI for any tactical aid.

Hefting his MKV [B] armour he began to trek his way across the fields.

XXXXX

Hazed Path Park

Landing site Alpha

Approximately 19 hours had passed since the assault on the planet, and 24 hours since landing down on the ground, in her cabin Liara was shaking. Her mind was still fresh to this conflict and she had only come out of the relic site where the bodies of many fallen soldiers were being taken.

She could still remember the smell of flesh burnt and the blood that endlessly stained the earth, she couldn't bring herself to admit that the entire operation had been a success. There were nearly thousands dead and only a little ground gained, the scientists that were accompanying her was also in a state of shock.

The effect of this conflict seemed to be enhanced by the young soldiers they were fighting, these young soldiers cost the turians nearly 5X their own number, and destroyed as much ground as anything ever recorded. The history books would be covered in details of this war forever, and only the most seasoned persons would ever face to read about something's like this.

Waiting another moment to re-cooperate herself with her surroundings, this war seemed far different than that of those told in history, this was a far worse case of warfare, not mentally but physically strenuous. The amount of this she had to do seemed to etch in her mind, she'd rather be happy to never have been part of the dig team on Amphora.

But regrets aside she was here and things were now, she had to keep a calm and collective mind, and hope that she'd never be sent into any future combat zones.

XXXXX

Moridn Solus hurried about in his usual manner, collecting data, going over previous surveying data, geographical data, environmental and planet wide. The information gathered from the engagements over the planet seemed to stockpile. There was an endless line of data streaming from over the planet, he had his hands and arms full trying to understand what he had been looking at.

"What is this? Two different gene strands? That cannot be possible; there are twenty three chromosomes here, and nearly twenty five in another, along with many natural additions. This cannot be… evolution? No take too long for proper standardisation… Could it be? Possible intervention by another race, it seems most likely, no traces of this kind of addition anywhere but in these soldiers." Mordin was on the very path of the dangerous truth.

XXXXX

Varris cleared his vision, his head disorientated by the massive explosion, a trap had been set in place, one that did not rely on technology. A chemical explosive bomb had been put to use, an explosive paste had been the catalyst in a trap that had been laid hours before. The trap had caught all but him and one squad in the explosion, the rest were all vaporised.

Varris could hear something. 'Thud, Clank, Thud, Clank…' It sounded heavy, much like a YMIR…

"Get down!" He yelled.

An explosion ripped across the room, it impacted where the remaining survivors were, the explosion consumed the survivors in intense heat and light, and they were flash fried in seconds.

Varris watched as a massive 9ft walking tank came into the range of his sights, he could only quiver in fear as he looked into the cold unforgiving eye of the monster…

XXXXX  
That is it for now!


	19. Chapter 13

CH12

This is supposed to kick off the FCW Chronicles of the IVI, but due to some unwelcome comments I have disbanded that idea.

(Welcome to the new war)

Familiar47 has posted his character into the database and is now a part of the war, feel free to join whenever you wish, just email me and I'll see what I can do!

ENJOY

Name-Cameron Fraser (Red Cub/Red)

Age-22

And rank-Corporal

And any made up bio: Cameron was born in Scotland on Earth and joined up in the UNSC Marine Corps when he was 19. He has only ever had seven live fire fights against covenant forces-all around the time of the Invasion of the Ark, but has shown to be a promising combat engineer and machine gunner. He is called Red Cub due to several reason: firstly his hair having once been bright red-now dulled reduced to a darker, brown colour, that and when he first began training his sensitive skin kept burning in the heat of the sun light-he managed to overcome this when he turned twenty. And finally he had neglected to shave for several weeks and grew a thin yet very noticeable beard, resulting in the addition of 'Cub' after a joke was made comparing his rather hairy and dishevelled state coupled with apparently 'how cute' he looked to a bear cub-needless to say he makes sure to shave every day now.

It is usually advised to just called him Red, or Cam unless you like your base's showers spitting out ice cold water or finding your helmet filled with oil. He refrains from such pranks if he believes or knows there is a crisis on the way though, and may put it off for weeks or months before taking his revenge-preferring to couple his dedication to his work with his personal vendettas and not compromise either of the two if possible.

BTW just a message for Familiar47

Is this guy a regular or what? I kind of hoped to get him in on the ODST or ADST (Atmospheric Drop Shock troopers) they carry jump packs through the atmosphere and land in to attack forward positions, they are really badass.

Thank you very much…

OPERATION: Marathon

20th/1/2554

/ANOMIA/ recording…

The Aspire onto Tomorrow appeared in real space as it began its approach to the besieged world of Anomia, the home world burned to a lesser extent. The covenant had laid waste too far more of their world, and this was nothing new.

"How much further until we're able to deploy the HEVs ensign?" Duran asked.

"Another ten minutes sir, there's a lot of air traffic, from what we can get it's bad." The ensign said.

Tanya materialised into the bridge. "Sir, I have counted the remains of the fleet in orbit, I have confirmed that there is a large force present on the capital, I would suggest that we take a much more discrete path as there is little chance we will receive support."

"So it seems like we need another plan."

Grey's, who was sitting next to the holo table said. "Sir, maybe we could use a more critical option. The main force has landed exactly at the Hazed Path Valley, if that is the major landing zone for their forces. That would mean they are only concentrated in one zone."

"And in one place, but what should we do?"

"We could disable them."

"But using what?"

"The ship, the Aspire could jump in and then out of the atmosphere. The spike of radiation should create a pulse, much like the one that occurred on earth."

"Right the EMP would wipe the entire fleet's shields and flight capabilities, and then the UCA could mount a counter offensive."

Tanya interjected. "But that would require us to gather what remains of the ground forces, and they have been scattered over the length of S3-9, we would be at this for weeks."

"Then what's the fastest way to reunify our forces?" Duran asked.

"Coordination is most likely the key, and speed, our enemies will not know we are coming, so we also have that advantage. But this may not last long, if the turians fortify and hold us out long enough for reinforcements, our situation would result as it had in the covenant war."

They could all remember the war; there was likely chance that the turians would continue this offensive into UCAF space until they found themselves fighting on their own turf. And that was unlikely to happen for a while.

"Then it looks like we're going to have to go all out on this plan, Grey's get your team on the ground in three hours, deploy at Hypress command and get them going."

XXXXX

19th/1/2554

UNSC Honour to Death

Low Orbit

The hustle of gear, machines, computers and people were the usual thing aboard a UNSC vessel, but not as much when you have literally thousands of troops gearing up for the fight of their lives.

The Honour to Death is a UCAF Heavy Cruiser designed as a part time carrier, it was intended to be used in the earlier part of the war, but was quickly decommissioned at a UNSC world; the ship was only seen in action for ten years until its end. And now it was back in the seat of warfare, the massive 3km heavy cruiser was designed with an extension carriage to house more troops, this carriage can be separated when heavily damaged or can be deployed for landing zones.

The ship could be easily seen as a behemoth of rectangular honeycombs and parallels. The ship is also loaded with the most amount of equipment for land operations; its storage carries nearly 15000 troops and has a vehicle core of half that number.

To the UNSC this was a good use of resources, to a certain marine sitting in his new HEV pod, this was the next best thing to earth.

A dark red haired man just out in his early twenties sat at the edge of the pedestal to his new Assault descent pod/ HEV, checking his Nova N.1.101 hand tool he began a quick check on the pod before the operation began.

The UCA worlds had fallen under attack again, and his ship was sent in a rapid response force, but when they arrived it had been too late and the aliens were swarming the planetary defences, but he knew that the UCAF was strong.

The Nova tool he acquired came from the UCA engineering Corps and was sent to him by a Lt Cameron, not so sure on who the person might be, but he had hopes to see this person alive.

"Hey Red, come on, the drops in three hours, and the Blue boys have their pods ready, what about you?" His CO asked.

"Nearly there sir, but in the engineering Corp, we don't like to rush in case we might die, and that would be the last thing my mind." He said in a Scottish accent.

"Fine by me boy, but still hurry it or you'll be dropping down without us." The Duct Irish commander said.

Walking off, the engineer huffed, this was his eighth fight, and one he knew wasn't going to end well, the UCAF had reported the thousands of skilled alien soldiers, but poor tactics. Still it had not put his mind at ease with hitting the ground with the marines in a very bad kill zone, Caldera City was the main focus for his marine detachment, and he only just got to know them well, Monty and the others, Lucas, Moro, Moore, Ade, Abby, Elisa, and many in his platoon.

He just hoped that this wasn't going to end as it had on earth, he remembered the piles of dog tags, it wasn't the most memorable things, and he had rather face something far worse than that again.

The time it had taken after his quick spot check Red or Cameron Fraser the corporal of the new 22nd ADST ground forces, an hour went by. He walked from his pod to the armoury to get his final gear on, he liked the suits given to them by the UCA forces, and the skin suit he was wearing had been the similar type of material worn by the Spartan Venerators and the ALPHAs.

The thin layered skin was strong enough to withstand the most punishment given by the covenant to ODSTs; the ablative reflective armour gleamed as he picked it up, the one inch plated energised iridium sat snuggly as he zipped his skin suit up.

The regular leg and knee guards held in place as he put them on, and then to his arms, he pulled out a TAC/ANI data pad and placed the tool onto his arm, it took a few seconds for initialisation of the Nova tool to sync and activate.

Setting everything aside he reached for his final piece of gear, the ODST helmet with net command uplink and SATCOM. Walking back to his pod, his black armour held comfortably against his form.

Calling over the team com. "Sir, I'm ready to go."

"Good to hear Red, get into your pod, you've just made the deadline, command has ordered an early drop, things aren't getting better down there, so be ready, it's going to be a hell of a ride." The commander said.

"Roger that." Red said stepping into the hexagonal HEV.

Things sped up as troops from all over the ship began to scramble into pods and drop ships and gunships, the HEVs didn't wait long as the ship began to move towards the final LZ, the skies above Caldera.

"Okay, pre operations are complete, getting the HEVs, we're live in three." CO Brian said.

"Guess what boss, Elisa admitted liking Red here." Danny said irritably.

"Fucking get off my case, that ain't your concern about what a lady wants." Red replied.

"Right Red, I'll bring some flowers to the procession." Jamie added.

"Fuck, will you guys get off my ass, sweet Jesus, you guys are annoying."

"Yeah, and besides Red isn't by type." Elisa added.

"Well shit, looks like I'm back at square one, hang on a second didn't you admit…"

"No that was a rumour you ass, and besides I hear you like a split face."

"Okay now I find that more insulting, first off Ranamoree is not my GF, we met during the invasion, yes, I saved her ass out of more than one fire, but I do not…"

"DEPLOYING" The compute chimed.

The pods jerked heavily downwards, the gravity seemed to pull the pods in, but the new anti-gravity plating kicked in fast enough that they barely felt the pull, the new plating was a new and impressive feat in UCAF and UNSC technology, and was seen as a good improvement to their situation involving the deadly falls or miscalculated jumps.

XXXXX

Caldera City

"Go for fucks sake, go, and go, go…" Jack yelled.

The whole column of warthogs and elephants cleared the final battlements of their once great city, and then from the small bunker where the base was, a massive explosion followed in the wake of the marine's departure.

Jack and Luke watched from afar as they escaped, the turians had not been as lucky as to their knowledge about the final trap, the mini hydrogen bomb went off; the five hundred meter blast covered most of the city in an earth shaking explosion. Though large as it was, the explosion was meant to distract and deter the turian forces long enough for the marines to escape the city.

"Woo mother fuckers, that was it, those fucking split lips can kiss our asses, we've left the building." Luke called out.

Their destination was now set in for the main grounds at the emerald peaks base, not far seeing as they were on the far western mountain ranges, now a trip to the north east and they'd have some support against the turians.

XXXXX

Varris was not feeling to well, his head ached, the sounds of machinery filled his head, it had been a while since the battle but he could only remember the strangely familiar sound…

'That machine…' He remembered.

Varris felt his eyes open, but dared not to sit upright, his instincts told him nothing good was going to happen.

Another set of footsteps and movement followed by his forehead being touched and one thing that was said. "Get up, I know you're awake." A feminine voice said.

He could help but do so, and as a precaution he got up to face the being quick enough to catch off guard. But to his surprise, he saw that the human in front had planned as well, as she planted her fist in his nostril with force, the room lighting came through and his head made contact with the back of the wall.

"Argh that hurt." He said grasping his face.

"Well how about next time you try to grab me, you don't." The woman replied heatedly.

"I hadn't imagined that you could punch so hard." Varris said looking about.

The person he had attempted to attack was surprisingly young, or looked about as young as he could imagine, the woman was pale skinned and had a lovely heart shaped face. She seemed to stare at him with some contempt, but it was replaced with a more neutral attitude. That and the pink armour with slight purple lining and red helmet with a medical symbol stylised, anyone would also have noticed the tom cat on her right shoulder guard.

"Well, mister Varris, I should congratulate you on surviving being shot to pieces by a MA-HV, not many beings tend to survive those walking tanks, or the following medical procedures."

Varris looked to see many lines that crossed his body including his natural armour, it had been torn in places and some bits of flesh had been completely replaced by a strange organic metal.

"What happened?" He asked slightly shocked.

"You died, and we brought you back, nearly completely, a HE grenade launcher was used to clear out the room you and what remaining survivors in that bunker. You were the lucky one, seeing as how badly you were hit, we had to replace twenty five percent of your body."

"What? But you don't know anything about my species, how did you…"

"We planned well ahead, this was a test for your kind anyway, and the UNSC and UCA are going to have you locked away, after I've finished cleaning your wounds and surveying your health."

"My, that sounds cheery." He said sarcastically.

"Be thankful they aren't taking you into an ICV, those are the worst things that you could possibly imagine, seeing how high ranked you are."

"Well becoming a prisoner of war is also in my people's point of view rather bad."

"You'll get over it. Now I need to test about your, private matters, in concern to your lower waist…" She said pulling out a needle and a rather sharp looking object.

Varris suddenly felt as though something bad was about to happen.

"Umm… "0.0"

(Hah ha hah ha… This is awful, oh well, the character's name is Mimi, tell me where I got this name from and I might reward you a prise, she isn't hard to find out about.)

The series used to be popular on machinima and youtube, it still is.

XXXXX

This is for all of you guys!

This is a separate noble six, she's only here because of a special something, and that Noble team is still alive! With the exception of Jorge, I think, I know about the slip-space rupture, but don't worry. Spartans never die…

Noble Six raised her head, the sounds of the incoming barrage wasn't hard to ignore, diving with super human speeds she dodged the large mass of plasma and took cover next to the ruined shell of a tank.

Her breathing increased as she heard the marching of grunts, she was surrounded and out gunned, but that did not break her hope. She had to hold these bastards back long enough for the strange slip-space device to activate, and then she could make her way off Reach.

This facility was ONI's Tier ONE site, it was a secret operation to perfect a slip-space portal, but it was never tested, which was why six came here, she was sent to destroy it and the facility along with the data gathered.

But as she had fought for the last few weeks, the planet slowly began to fall, and around her, her fellow Spartans. Jorge, Kat, Jun, Carter, and Emile, they had all gone MIA, with Jorge as the first. Six was now alone, waiting for death, and waiting to see them once again.

'Have we lost?'

She knew that answer before it was even asked, it wasn't over until they were all gone, reloading her rifle, she peered out once more and fired on the approaching grunts coming down the lab loading bay.

The grunts went down without effort but taking a significant amount of her ammo, she reloaded and peered once more only to be greeted by another sight, an elite.

Recoiling back as fast as she could, Noble Six back flipped with amazing speed and grace, but it was in vain, the elites were not only just as capable of keeping up with Spartans they could almost match them, almost.

And this one could, the white armoured commander struck out and hit her squarely in the chest as she finished her back flip. The air was knocked out of her and she was knocked off balance, hitting the ground, she tried to get back up.

The elite looked at her with a smile, or what could be seen as a smile, grabbing her it lifted her to its face then activated an energy dagger. As its final tribute to the female demon it spoke in human words.

"You've lost, and we have one, and it shall be this way, for as long as your race will be remembered."

Six could only feel herself try desperately to escape the grasp, but to no avail. Her failure to escape seemed to make the elite ever sure that he could deprive her of hope.

That was until a resounding "CRACK" was heard.

The elite's top skull was blown clean off, six looked to see her saviour, or should she say saviours.

"Keeping it close I see." Jun said.

"Jun I thought."

"Halsey made her amendment when she told me to go back for you, and guess what I found some friends along the way." He said helping her up.

At that moment six saw the other figures clad in their MKV armours, Carter, Emile, Kat, they had all come back.

"What's the matter? It looks like you've seen a ghost." Emile joked.

Six smiled under her helmet, she knew that she could count on Noble to comeback somehow, she looked at Carter who asked.

"Lieutenant, you need some help?"

"More than you know, sir."

With that, a door blew open to reveal… a shit load of elites and an army of covenant behind them.

"Let's go mother f******." Emile yelled as he charged.

XXXXX

This is it, another special cameo for the arrival of Noble Team, but they aren't in just this story, I will be splitting this between here, and Freelancer, Fate is never set (Because you guys are annoying JK :D )

World of Warcraft: Halo's Call

And any other ME/Halo or UNSORTED

But here's a question for you all

What's black, red, black, and is seven foot high?

Along the lines of this, his name is Jordan, but he is number 1337

What is his call sign?

You have to search my stories carefully, it will be there


	20. Chapter 14

CH13

Sorry about the delay I have to deal with my brother Himitsuki returning from Japan and my sis who had been living outside. Now I have a full family in a crowded home, which will hamper my writing, oh well.

XXXXX

Kick off the year…

OPERATION: Marathon

2554/1/21st

ANOMIA/ Recording…

Gateway east guard

A wave of mass accelerators blew over head, Jack and Luke held their ground gritting as they waited for the onslaught to end, it wasn't a long one seeing as their enemies were already overheadting their weapons to deal with the marauders.

"Return fire." Jack yelled.

The marauders did so as they were ordered, their bullets struck out with deadly precision as they did so, the modified MA5C [V] were standard to their original counterpart but yielded a greater amount of destructive force and accuracy.

The bullets hit most of their targets only to detonate the shields of the turians, some were killed outright by the explosive rounds but a good sum had survived their retaliation. It though didn't take long as the turians went back to cover and held their position.

"Luke, get around back and flank them, we'll hold here and see if we can distract them long enough."

"Right, I'm on it." The young lieutenant said before heading off.

The marauders hit with as much fire power as they could allowing for a gap to appear within the ranks of the turians. The gap was quickly filled and the turians began returning fire as the fire fight intensified.

Luke as the second oldest brother in his family of seven was a sensible and well known young man, but he had a habit of opposing his older brother when it came to decisions. Though his intentions for doing so were good, it still did not resolve every problem.

Clad in his marauder armour the young soldier headed for the second level of an destroyed building that was on the right flank of the turians, he didn't have long to think as he removed the M40 underslung grenade launcher and attached it to his assault rifle.

Keeping as close to the wall as he could, Luke loaded the 40mm grenade launcher with a HE and took aim. The turians had scanners and trackers, but with the UCA nothing was as easy to penetrate, the planning ahead was the main objective of the UCAF, developing a means of jamming all trackers and close range devices they began testing with ION scramblers in case of invasion, this resulted in planetary black out but provided cover.

The turians had no idea what was waiting for them from above, Luke keeping his sights on the enemy squad timed the shot, when the turians popped their heads over the rubble he lobbed the grenade inside their formation.

To some people the sound of a ping and a small thud would usually mean next to nothing but a sound, but this sound was all too familiar to the UCA marauders, Jack yelled. "Frag out."

"BOOM"

The high explosive package made its presence known as it collided with the ground and detonated with deadly precision, the squad of turians quickly became a haze of blue blood and body pieces. Though not all died, most were injured or disorientated by the blast.

"Fix bayonets." Jack yelled as they began to rush the turians positions.

The resounding clack of the hidden bayonets coming outside of their loaders on the outside of their rifles were the most dreaded sound for the covenant, as whole divisions of covenant had to slug their way through resonating blades running at them.

The turians however had no such experience and were about to be taught a very important lesson of their lives. The turians, who could fight, fired their rifles in vain, the bullets only made contact with the ablative armour and light shielding plates that helped these marauders so much during the war.

The rush of blades at that point was only heard as a roar of yells came over; the turians became an un-picturesque of what they had been in that brief moment. The knives and bayonets dug deep, the armour that had been heralded in years of service couldn't survive the onslaught, and the resonating blades that were energised ripped them apart like paper.

Jack cleaved a turian that had been standing and firing, the bayonet gutted him and he pulled the trigger, the armour buckled at the torso and the rounds chewed apart the turians intestinal organs and any other.

The other marines hit hard with their vicious attack, the sounds of bayonets could only be heard along with the screams of the remaining turians left alive being bayoneted on the ground. Luke arrived in the aftermath of the grenade and quickly added his strength in the blood bath.

The sight that remained was considered indescribable, the mess of blue turian blood and the remains of the fire team had been left to rot, the marauders began to collect weapons and any other items of value and regroup.

"Fuckers put up a hell of a fight now don't they?" Jack asked.

"More that I can possibly imagine, but why the hell would they try and stop us from reaching north guard?" Luke asked.

"Probably some operation there, which means it's either under siege or, there's another place that they're at."

"Hazed Path?"

"Yeah, the most logical position for anyone, it's the only place that they could land their forces, and from the recent sweep operation, there's no major force in that region." Jack said picking over a dead turian.

"It would be the perfect place for a foothold." Luke said looking at his TAC.

"Which is why, we're going to hit it." Jack said lifting a piece of a turian over to check for ID.

"Okay, brother on an honest opinion… HAVE YOU FUCKING LOST IT?" Luke yelled.

Things in the area turned quiet, the troops knew of the brother's constant arguments of operations and plans, and they never questioned the two seeing as they had successfully completed dozens of missions together.

Jack putting the arm back down looked at his brother with the same eyes as he had, their expressions remained stoic and cold.

"No, there's nothing wrong, and I haven't gone AWOL, there's very little option, and I doubt we could somehow pull off an attack with only fifty troops, but we need to learn about our enemy, which is why I was planning on you to help."

"I will, but not if it's inconvenient for us, we have fifty of the five hundred that was at Caldera, and we're going to attack a landing zone of a few hundred thousand? Where's the logic in that? We don't have enough ammunition or supplies or support, and we're barely holding what's left of our gear." He said gesturing to the scarred warthogs.

"That is why we need to get this done, the timing couldn't be worse or any perfect. If they're attacking northern command, we don't have much of an option. We're cut off, and sooner or later they'll be repelled but they'll exhaust themselves with attacking while we're over here."

Luke and Jack knew they couldn't take this out any longer, if they headed up to North they'd be entering a kill zone. And if they headed to attack they'd face the same dilemma, only with more firepower. But Jack had made a point along with Luke, either plans were going to get them in a hostile situation.

"…"

At that point it was Luke who gritted the idea of doing the same mission as they had during the covenant campaign on Nora or Vot're, this was no different.

"We need jammers and plenty of them." Luke said.

XXXXX

Hazed Path

Field ship No.122

Liara walked to her room with another stack of data slates and a news pad from council space, the news of the war had reached all but a handful, and the council was trying to investigate on the current set of events.

The galaxy believed that the turians war was far too aggressive and that this was an overreaction within the thinking of the hierarchy. This war had already costed thousands of lives in the shortest period of time, and even though they had not yet intensified their fighting the outcome was obvious, a high casualty toll on the turians and a war that would most likely result in disaster.

Yet even as the turians reported a successful operation, it was not mentioned at what cost it came at. The council themselves had been bracing for the worst, and it had happened, the report on 1 spectre being missing in action or killed, had hit the turians hard.

It was a matter of time before a full mobilisation of the turians forces into Nova Stratus, though that was also on the agenda of the council. The turians have been pushing further action, but were stopped by the council to come to terms with what they were planning.

And now it was only a matter of time, the predicted movement of them to attack or be counter attacked. Politics were not one of Liara's fortes.

She set the pile as neatly onto her desk next to the other piles of data, afterwards slumped into her bed and exasperated. The days now were only counting up, but the counts of death were just as present, she had waded across the literal thousands to get the right information.

Specially designed traps and ambushes and even primitive mines, they had all been a part of her research into human weaponry, her cross reference to human and turians were surprisingly different. The humans had the most primitive means of traps and plans, yet they improvised on the field, this placed a unique advantage to their tactics and limited them.

Turian forces that follow on leads in the area find themselves in dangerous situations, a gas mine pocket from underneath one platoon was detonated during a retreat of human troops, unknowingly heading in they discovered their scanners being jammed. And it was then they realised they had walked into a trap; the gas pocket detonated with terrifying force and obliterated the entire platoon.

In another instance, a strike force attacking an ONI building found that they were in a training facility, they didn't know about any humans or anything within sight. But as they reached the midway through the training grounds, the automated testing machines began firing upon them, they retaliated only to find no traces of bodies, or damaged machinery, it wasn't until there began a ominous recording from the field.

"Aim for the… ARGH…"

The bodies were found split apart in various ways, many were discovered to have been cleanly cut, but no trace of their attackers, the retrieval team was sure that this had to have been a surgical precision attacks due to the damage caused, but they couldn't find anything conclusive, either than the idea of an machine that was truly capable of such feats.

Liara shuddered at the thought, the humans had proven far more deadly than they could have ever anticipated, and if the reports were accurate, they had barely scratched the surface of the UCAF/UNSC.

"BEEP" The door chimed.

"Yes?" Liara answered.

"Dr T'soni? It is Professor Solus, I must speak with you, it is urgent." The salarian said in his usual babble.

Liara stepped off her bed and opened the door; she was greeted by the large eyed doctor with red and white skin.

"What is that you'd like to discuss doctor?" She asked as they stepped into her room.

"Too important, far too important, cannot imagine the significance. Do you remember the human that I had shot previously?"

"Yes." She said confused.

"Well in research I discovered a unique gene strand from the soldier that had been altered, he's genome was altered for war. But there is a hidden patch of DNA, though humans have a larger set of genes, there's also a present trace of a unique DNA strand, it is suited into their structure to bridge the chains and form a sort of hybrid cell. It is incredible, this type of suiting had been there for countless generations, but it suggests that it began with that artefact on Amphora."

"Do you mean the beacon?"

"Yes, why we could not access that beacon was due to our gene strands, it was meant only for access by the humans, or a race similar."

"So, the humans were the inheritors of this object?"

"Yes, the suiting was made only for them, but for what purpose?"

"I think we should alert the council, it might be best for them to intervene before things escalate any further and we lose our chance to gain whatever knowledge…"

"BOOM"

The room shook, the entire staging grounds shook, and as it did the largest mushroom cloud appeared in exactly the position of the barracks were, the area soon became engulfed in explosions as an offensive began.

"They began their counter operation?" Nihlus asked as he stumbled from his room.

Back in the ship with Liara and Mordin, the two scientists hobbled from the room.

"They must have begun a counter operation; they are smarter than we thought. I must head back to lab; research data needs retrieval and storage before emergency scramble." Mordin said as he let the doctor sit down.

"Right, and I must get back to my room, I'll contact you once the offensive passes." Liara said as the professor jogged off.

XXXXX

Jack had anticipated far more resistance, but this wasn't what he had expected as a resistance to their attack, the entire base of the turians landing zone had been utterly defenceless and was almost too easy to strike.

The barracks were their first and primary target, cutting off their supply of troops and assistance made it easier for them to deal with the rest of the force. The marines thought were only there to divert their guards from the more sensitive zones of the base, Luke was leading the infiltration teams to hit the main computers and their labs, if they could get enough data on what they had learnt it would make their war so much easier.

Jack was in on the offensive to the west of the base where their main theatre of command, and the only place that they could strike without too many difficulties. The timing had been on the mark and the chaos seemed to beckon from their attack. But a surprising delay occurred where the turians had no idea to where the assault had begun, and they haphazardly tried to re-coordinate their attention.

This valuable time given Luke began his strike into the secure labs, from a ridge overlooking the base, Luke and his strike team began to calculate their jump.

"Okay, we're in the green. Remember a five hundred meter jump, we jump every one hundred approx. and then continue on foot along with the mobile combat unit. We then proceed to their main labs in range of second jump and enter through the side hatch of that science vessel, understood?" He asked.

"Sir yes sir." They replied.

"Good, death from above."

"And death from below." They yelled.

XXXXX

"Alert breaches in main hold, please all non-combat personnel report." The VI chimed in.

A team of turians responded by blockading the hallway in the region that had been breached, their eager eyes waiting for their first battle and first taste of experience in war. They were new and trained by the best on Palaven, they believed they were ready for anything.

"PING"

As they watched the hallway a small black box of a hexagonal prism shape appear, the black hull seemed to confuse the turian marines, it didn't look like anything they had seen, and it was by far the oddest thing to be thrown at them.

They didn't stand a chance. The seconds after they let their guard drop, the machine popped open, and the contents seemed to glow and shimmer, at first they ducked believing it was a bomb until nothing happened. But once they looked up, they were unprepared for their opposition.

The was no longer a hexagonal prism that took up the hall, it was a strange looking combat drone with obsolete but deadly looking mini-guns and sensors attached along with treads.

"Target acquired." The mini tank said.

The turians only briefly heard those two words before the shooting began…

The MCU55 (Mobile Combat Unit) fired without hesitation, the smaller underslung grenade launcher struck at them with deadly precision as it blew apart the turians, then the machine guns attached began to spin and rotate, faster until a barrage of high velocity machine gun rounds began tearing through their ranks.

The tungsten bullets tore into the flesh and metal along with anything in range of it, the screams of the turians were replaced only by the constant repeat of machine guns.

Liara was praying…

She found herself cornered in her labs, she had been waiting for the data retrieval and transfer so she could leave, but there was far more data than she could record that was taking too long to upload to her Omni tool.

She waited after the shootings and the screams praying that the mini tank didn't find her, the computer began beeping as the final package was delivered. She poked her hand about grasping the last data pad before heading to the door.

Though she was greeted by the only thing she was dreading either than the tank. In the doorway the figure clad in black and grey armour stared at her as she stuttered in fear, it didn't take long before it grabbed her and struck her in the neck.

"It looks like we've found our target get her back out of here and do a full viral scavenger upload that should slow them down." A voice said.

Liara could only watch as she was dragged away, soon she fell into unconsciousness.

XXXXX

"Package is retrieved, and we have a prisoner, a scientist not any of these split faces, just a blue skinned one, most likely a separate faction." Luke said over the com.

"Right, we're falling back, the mortars will provide artillery support for five minutes, get clear and call it in." Jack said.

"Roger that, meet at rendezvous coordinates seven."

XXXXX

RECORDING…

Extract ONI SECTION III: CAMERON

0100: 21th/1/2554

South Caldera…

Red seemed to be seeing red, he woke with a start as he tried to get his bearings, the jump had been successful from he could tell, but not the timing.

"God Damn, those fuckers detonated a N.2?" He said out loud.

The drop had been good half way, not until he noticed the large blue and whitish light from the earth below, the city and his platoon was engulfed in the explosion, only though he was knocked clean off course by a lot of meters.

Keeping his head cool, he checked his vitals over his Nova tool; all green appeared, though his left shoulder blade armour had been cracked by the sudden impact from the mid-air collision.

'Thank grace that the suit is built for this shit.' He thought.

Hitting the emergency breaker panel that connected to a pressure gauge, the hiss of the door and then a muffled pop was all he needed to know he was in the open. But a bit higher than he'd like.

"What the fuck?" He said looking about.

He had landed, but not in the right place, from what he could see, there was at least another seventeen meters from the ground before he could call it a landing. He had come into a warehouse, stacked with armour and ammunition, but he had landed on the rafters and crashed through a dozen stacks of materials before abruptly coming to a stop there.

"Well isn't this just great, how in god's green world did I manage to end up here? I mean physics should dictate I should have gone clean through the floor, not seventeen meters in a bloody rafter."

He climbed out and carefully stepped onto the sturdy construction, it was obvious he wasn't going to miss anything important, maybe just break his feet landing hard.

"Well looks like feet first into a heck and a hamster ball, but that would imply hell."

XXXXX

Enjoy!

I need to get back to the other things, BTW, if this reaches 117,000 words, please be very careful, I want to count this right.


	21. Chapter 15

CH14

XXXXXX

Where's my tank?

We have now arrived at a new stage in the war! And I will be allowing the events that proceed to reach a new peak; the quarians are on their way!

And also screw the last thing I said, I'll let the Ghosts of Onyx back, due to some already made events, it really gets annoying trying to alter the timeline.

XXXXXX

Short time jump

22nd/1/2554

UNSC support arrives at location S09-S0012 Viscos territory has been reclaimed.

23rd/1/2554

Contact along the eastern seaboard re-established main forces begin frontal assault to Hazed Path.

The end of operation: Marathon.

Aspire, returns to main dry docks above the Crystal Lake base, North guard attempt to move in.

27th/1/2554

Destruction of turian forces by orbital bombardment in Hazed Path, 90% success and minimal casualties recorded, remaining turian forces surrender.

28th/1/2554

Contact is established between the quarian migrant fleet and UCA command and colonial government, the UEG and UNSC are also present for the meeting between them and the representatives.

Agreement is soon reached and access to the Tan system is secured, though a desperate plan must be drawn to complete operation.

XXXXXX

31st/1/2554

OPERATION: RED CROSS

Aspire: High Orbital Dock 7

There was much sense of beauty from above, the world below seemed to be endless as it glowed, anyone in the orbital station could see the sight below, it invigorated and strengthened the belief of one's mind as to why they fought.

This was what Duran could see, the wonder of Anomia and its people, there was little to say though, and the war had taken a serious toll even though it was not present amongst the troops, but it was evident upon the world below.

The landscape was torched and dark, and areas completely void of all life, this was what the covenant had reduced their people to. Desperate soldiers of a lost war, yet they were no longer fighting the covenant, they were fighting a new war.

The arrival of the turians had lessened the people's morale and a new war was the last thing the UNSC and the UCA wanted, but the turians had not broken from the warpath. And another fleet had struck at the sigma relay to stop them from ever reaching the other side.

The new operation depended on the relay and if the turians had severed it from the rest of them, they'd never manage to get the quarians here. The plan though had not been perfect; it was a rush of statistics and manoeuvres, a less likely chance they'd ever get through the blockade, but had a new means.

To the left port window of the orbital station the image of the fleet gathering remained, Duran had a distinct feeling as though there was still much to debate. He was correct, but due to this unique opportunity to aid the quarians, they had to gather a large enough force to break the covenant blockade.

"Captain, the field repairs are complete, and the resupply, we are allowed to re-join the fleet at your own time." Tanya reported.

"Right, thank you Tanya, how are our guests doing?"

"They are inquisitive, and rather excited, we will begin our operation as soon as possible."

"What about Grey team?"

"They are being resupplied with their newer crusader class armour; they'll be ready for combat soon."

"And the EVA booster frames and the EVA suits?"

"All are ready for deployment, though Karl would like to advise a new frontline pilot."

"Get the best we have, we aren't going to have it easy on this mission."

With that the AI vanished and went about her duties, Duran could not be interrupted, he had many things that needed to be addressed at the given moment and he couldn't be disturbed. It was only a matter of time until the turians launch their counter attack back into UCAF space and push them far enough.

If they were to have any success, they needed allies; the quarians knew a fair bit about the galaxy and could give them the necessary details for planets and places, the main homeworlds and such. This was one of the many things, and also they had been in need of intelligence on the status of the council, if they could open communications within the next six months, it would really help with stopping the conflict.

Duran sighed, here was another war he was living to see, one where the same sacrifices were being made, children, the young and innocent. Chosen to fight for humanities sake of continued existence, if this war was to go on, it would require the same casualties as it always will.

XXXXX

The fleet began its reformation at sector 11-2401-343 and began its operation, they had only so much time before the turians would respond to their actions and they needed to move fast. At the head of the main fleet, Admiral Vance looked out his window, he could see the outlines of his fleet, the same one that held the covenant back, and the same that had defeated the turian landing forces.

"Begin spinning up FTL, operation Red Cross is to begin."

"Sir Yes sir, relaying message, green light is a go." The communications said.

The fleet began their trans-light engines, the light in front of them started to ripple and a swirling gateway of light appeared, the fleet entered smoothly and began the traverse to the other side.

Vance could only watch knowing that this was the day; humanity took the war to their enemies. This was war at its most decisive form, there was no turning back.

XXXXX

Sigma Relay

1st/2/2554

Morning Glory…

The sigma relay had now been fully reinforced; the turian hierarchy hadn't been able to recruit enough troops for the conflict due to the ongoing crisis on the citadel with the sides trying to resolve the matter.

The hierarchy was permitted to launch another fleet or two to the relay to protect and secure it; this was to end a majority of the fighting until a suitable outcome presented itself. Even so, the turians had bent the truth to suit their needs; they were gathering their forces for another push into the Nova Stratus sector.

The fleet that now secured the relay was a 125 ship blockade; at the other end of the relay was the remaining 95 with support. They had also brought out a mass of space stations as defensive formations to slow any opposition and prepare their staging ground.

But to spectre Nihlus, this was useless, a mere waste of time and resources, he could only watch as his fellow turians that had arrived from Palaven and other worlds gathered. Their attempt at defending the relay would be useless, if the humans were to ever breakthrough it would be nearly a simple wave of missiles and they'd be in wrecks.

Nihlus was still coming to terms with the loss of the Hazed Assault and repel at Caldera, there had been recorded losses of nearly 12,479 lives, just from the Hazed Path. If the turian hierarchy was annoyed, that was an understatement, they were now out for a full mobilisation of their forces.

But that wasn't as easy, the council was against the notion for a full mobilisation of troops into such a small region of space, even though they had no idea how large Nova Stratus even went. If they over exerted their troops, they might face an enemy far greater than the rachini.

But even when the council rejected the idea, the hierarchy was still in the war, they had sent small scouting forces deeper into the Nova Stratus territory, but so far none have reported back, they had assumed that they were dead or lost.

Nihlus was unsure what to make of the situation, he could only see the incompetence of the politics in a war that requires skill and knowledge as well as experience in war. Things here were not doing well, and if they continued the fighting they would lead themselves into a blood bath.

Nihlus waited and watched as the ships did their routine patrol patterns, the fleet here had been reinforced thankfully, the hierarchy had sent and deployed 5 dreadnoughts, and there were rumours of another 10 that were being debated for construction.

He knew that it would take more than just a fleet, the Spartans were coming…

"CONTACT ALERT!" The alarms blared.

Nihlus froze in place, the alarms began blaring across the network, the fleet was moving to intercept, as they attempted to form into a defensive position to where the human fleet began to enter. He saw as they grouped about, and then…

"IMPACT ALERT" The VI chimed.

Instead of the fleet that they had assumed would be arriving at, a detonation of a massive explosive occurred; he watched as he back behind a console, the detonation was out of subspace and into real space. The humans had subspace bombs.

"Impact imminent." The VI alerted.

The first shockwave of the bomb struck at the fleet and washed over the station, Nihlus was terrified as the station suddenly cut out of power; the consoles blacked out or detonated. He knew that this was a softening tactic that the hierarchy or even the council could have ever known about.

And then the fight truly began.

XXXXX

Sigma Relay

Vance confirmed the detonation of the sub-universal complex emitter, the rift in space had sent subspace eddies to knock the fleet into a state of confusion and allow them the time they needed to strike.

"All ships reporting sir." An ensign said.

"Good let's show them that, there's a price to pay for attacking us." He said sitting down.

"All MACs are loaded and charged, beginning our advance." Tactical called.

The fleet of 150 ships poured out of slip-space, it was truly a sight to see, and one that the turians would never forget.

As they poured from slip-space Vance could see the impact that the subspace mine had caused, he knew that this tactic might work; the turians would allow themselves to get a clear shot a full target than just a subspace gap.

But in anticipating this, he knew what needed to be corrected, the same subspace mines they had used in the human covenant war. It was the oldest trick in the book, send out an object that looked like a ship through subspace and pack the largest bomb inside of it.

The fleet now had the advantage.

"All weapons free. Fire all MACs." He ordered.

The fleet of 150 ships did so, the charged weapons of super kinetic rounds launched, they were sent into the distance between them and the turians. The 750kg slug from the Few and None fired off in a rapid trio of bursts, the speeds of nearly 45% speeds of light packed inside struck with deadly efficiency.

The first lines of the turians vessels became burning husks in moments, the remaining shells impacted against the others in the further most ranks as the shells tore through the hulls like paper. Vance knew that the element of surprise had been lost, and the initiative, from here on out they had to slug their way across the turians to reach the quarians.

"Begin the main assault, bring the Few and None to the main body and get the Aspire to break through their lines. And tell Halsey that her Spartans can deploy." He said focused on the battle.

"Sir yes sir." The ensign replied.

XXXXX

On board the Aspire, the green light came as the assault on Sigma Relay began, Halsey watched from the launch bay screen as the Spartan boosters were prepped. The massive flying weapon frames could easily outgun most frigates alone.

She watched as Blue team loaded up and in, alongside them was the Spartan V and IV who had taken to their fighters. The signal lights lit up and the fighters began their launch from the linear catapults.

"This is blue squadron, we're deploying." Fred said over the com channel.

The nimble and highly mobile fighters took off from their respective launch rigs and accelerated as fast as possible into the open space.

"This is Delta Squadron, we're heading out." Grey said.

The striker fighters began rapid ascent into combat, their engines flaring behind them as they launched.

From the view port, Halsey watched as they went into another war, she knew that there was some silver lining in there somewhere.

"Give them hell." She said to herself.

XXXXX

The booster frames quickly dispatched into the fight linked up with the other squadrons of Spartan fighters. Fred was surprised to see how many Spartans were in formation alongside him, at least forty to sixty from his command link, and they were all strikers and a mix of assault frames.

"Blue squadron will take point, clear a path to the relay and scout out ahead; the Aspire and the second fleet will link with you as soon as a path is clear." Grey said.

"Affirmative." Fred responded.

Blue squadron headed into the largest formation of ships that was guarding the relay and accelerated to attack speed.

"Linda, take Ash and Olivia to the right flank, clear a path for the Aspire. Kelly and I will move the rest of Katana and blue to assault the main body to allow access to the fleet." Fred ordered.

"Roger that." A flare of green bleeps and they were good to go.

The squadrons accelerated into the lines of cruisers and frigates, Fred along with Kelly activated their targeting reticules to lock in on the nearest cruiser. Then as they made their attack run the cruiser began firing its countermeasures, laser turrets fired off beams to bisect them, while missiles fired off left and right.

It wasn't hard for Fred and Kelly to quickly avert the dangers and continue their attack, Fred locked on while avoiding another laser he zeroed the location of the bridge and fired the main Mass Driver cannon.

The lethal projectile struck with the kinetic force of 40% speed of light combined with the 50kg weight of tungsten. The shells breached the bridge and exited along the aft of the ship splitting across the mass effect core.

"Pull up." Fred ordered.

A moment later the turian cruiser detonated from the core breach and quickly becoming a red and yellow haze, they could watch as the remains impacted against the other surrounding ships.

"One down, fifty one to go…" Kelly said.

XXXXX

Aboard the Aspire, Halsey watched from the bridge as the battle continued, she was amazed at how fast the UCAF had managed to advance quicker than the UNSC, they had poured everything into development of new ships and technology granted to them by the forerunners.

But they had also provided a new generation of Spartan, one that had more number that both her own and ONIs. But it still disturbed her that her work had been used in such scale and with so many lives.

But there was little to do until this war was won, she knew that there were questions, but ones that she could answer later, now was the time to observe the workings of the UCAF.

"Sir, another cruiser down, there are multiple gaps along the entire left flank, and Admiral Vance is already pushing to the right, he says to punch middle and allow the remaining fighters to deal with clean up so that we could make it to the other side." Tanya reported.

"Looks like our path is clear, move the Aspire to the main formation and call Grey team to provide cover as we assault." He ordered.

The Aspire fired her main guns once more, the lasers and missiles combined with the MAC struck the already failing forces of the turians, only bringing a fast death to the helpless. The Aspire then continued to push alongside the other parts of the fleet; Grey squadron and Blue were on either side devastating all in their way.

Another six more cruisers fell and at least a dozen frigates and destroyers.

"Fire HEAT missiles along the right flank then put us on course at bearings, 244-45 and then to 178-142."

Tanya did so, the Aspire did as it was ordered, firing the hundreds of anti-armour high explosive missiles and turning about and above the remaining cruisers and vessels to reach its destination.

The resulting explosion opened a path way for the stealth frigate as it made its way to the breach in the lines, Duran knew that on the other side, he was expecting a warm welcome.

"Tanya is it ready?" He asked as they made their final run.

"It's ready." She replied with a smile.

XXXXX

The migrant fleet had held itself in the system for the past few days, the news of the UNSC/UCAF arrival was imminent, and as they knew from the ONI ship that had approached them a few days ago, the path was nearly set.

The turians had not been welcoming to the quarians for being present within the system, but then again there had been hundreds of other ships pouring in because of the war. And they had enough problems, so they told them to hold from approaching the relay and wait at the second planet on the other side of the system.

Many of the quarians had been expecting the humans to betray them at one point or the other, but to their word, they returned with the good news to allow sanctuary for the migrant fleet within human space.

They had received all the data on the worlds set and placed, a handful was still in terraforming, but the few that were completed had and could be adjusted to help them with the sterile environments. It was a dream come true for the quarians and one that was welcomed by the conclave and the admiralty.

Even though this meant giving up on their original home world, this gave them access to a future for their children, where they would take back the world lost to them.

Admiral Zorah watched from the Neema, from what he heard his younger brother Rael was preparing for the imminent arrival of the UNSC Aspire, he like many wished for the torment of being stranded as nomads to end.

"How long until the Aspire begins its arrival?" Han'Gerrel asked.

"Any moment now, we just need to wait for the signal and we should jump in as the fleet is disabled, remember we only have a six hour window." He said gravely.

"Then let us pray that we are fast enough." Shala Raan said.

As they waited, they noticed something happening at the relay, it soon became clear as a mass of light consumed the sight.

"Admiral, there was a massive energy spike; it's over ninety million points of dispersion, the turian fleet… its gone." The ensign said.

The admirals gapped in horror and awe, the entire region where the turians had set their fleet had been wiped out? How powerful were these humans?

"A single signal has appeared, it appears to be the Aspire, and connection is coming through."

A moment later and the familiar sovereign face of the human captain appeared.

"Admirals, you may begin the movement of the fleet, we have little time and the turians most likely sent an emergency beacon to the world of Amphora, we need to move now." Duran said with urgency and calm.

"Understood captain, but might we ask what had happened at the relay?" Admiral Korris asked.

"We needed to clear the area so we detonated a micro nova, technically a mini sun, though it nearly cooked the relay, it destroyed a third of the turian fleet stationed here and disabled the rest. It'll be a matter of time when they send for reinforcements. We must move now."

With that they closed the channel.

"Tell the fleet to begin the exodus; we shall head to the relay without any delay."

XXXXX

Duran watched from his view screen, the hundreds and thousands of ships pouring in, he could not be as amazed at the sight though, there was a problem.

"How long is this going to take to evacuate the entire fleet into Nova Stratus?" He asked.

"Another five hours and thirty five minutes until full evacuation of quarian fleet is complete."

"And we can only evacuate half of that before the turians begin their counter offensive." Grey finished as he patrolled the space between the migrant fleet and the ship.

"Can we get any support from the other side?"

"Not until all turian vessels can be squared away, though the admiral is willing to send the Few and None along with fifty other ships." Tanya said.

"Tell him we'll need them ASAP, the situation is going to get ugly if we don't start acting."

"Affirmative, relaying message by beacon transmission, he'll be along in three hours." She replied.

XXXXX

This is what happened to Liara…

Alarm blaring overhead, Liara awoke, her senses dulled by the late night, she wasn't in the most exuberant of moods, the work on the Forerunners had uncovered much, and she was still trying to grasp how old these Forerunners were.

The door opened to her room. "Liara?" A voice asked.

She looked to see a human boy young and worn, his armour dented in places where his uniform now attached to his body and the cybernetic arms was. His features were still same as ever, as a robot wa built for.

"Yes." She replied tiredly.

"Doctor Valerie would like to see you in lab three fourteen." The android said.

"What time would it be now?" She asked.

"Nine fifteen." He replied.

"Ah… I'm late…"

"I'M LATE!" She suddenly shot up.

"Yes, by one hour and fi- no sixteen minutes and thirty two seconds."

Liara hurried to her closet and suited her lab clothes on, her old clothes were damaged some time before during her extraction and she had no idea what they would give her. But the clothes she had were quite casual and slightly comfortable as lab clothes got.

Hurrying through her food as she rushed into her apartment kitchen she got some toast and jam and something called a mocha and hurried out of her home to locate the good doctor.

Hurrying into the courtyard of the Hyperion complex she walked to the lower level where the scanners were.

"Welcome Doctor Liara T'soni, level three access cleared, and have a nice day." The AI chimed.

Liara was still trying to get over the many things the UNSC had, the AIs were a definite surprise to her and the many advanced technologies. Which some weren't as advanced as she'd imagined.

She had been brought here by the marines that assaulted the base camp a week ago, and was intrigued by everything she saw, even though some of these things were intimidating in every shape and form.

XXX-FLASHBACK-XXX

The sounds of jets were washed out by the sudden halt of transports; she couldn't see anything at all. She tried to squirm about as her captives held her down.

"Stop moving, you're only making things worse." A voice said quietly yet sternly.

"Why should I listen to you?" She asked afraid.

"Because there is a sensor drone above our heads that have orders to kill on sight, the turians have been getting desperate and we can't afford screw ups." He said quickly.

She listened to him and silenced herself, she listened hard and heard the drone above, it moved quietly yet still emitted a humming sound, and it passed over and moved away.

"Thank god for jammers, let's keep moving before another comes this way." The young male voice said.

They walked for another thirty minutes until they stopped once more.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Not a drone, we need to wait for our dust off. And here it comes."

A sudden roar of engines and jet wash was enough to tell her to keep her head down.

"Let's move, the turians will be right on our asses. Jack we have arrived at zero-one, and dust off confirmed by ONI." Luke said over his com.

"Roger that, we're falling back by the HRVs, we'll meet you back at north Hypress."

After that she had spent the night aboard a transport until arriving at their destination she remembered the exchange of words between some humans and then being taken by another vehicle to a secure location.

Then she had been interrogated by the humans ONI, the office of naval intelligence, she was interrogated by a human female named Gina and then taken into her cell, before being taken back out to be inquired by another human named Valerie.

After some convincing she agreed to help the good doctor with the understanding of the Forerunners, a thing that she had not initially wanted, but she accepted.

XXX-FLASHBACK END-XXX

Things went well afterwards, the guards in truth were nice and surprisingly young, but then again she did remember professor Mordin's examination of the humans. Things now were picking up once more as they heard of the new arrivals soon to be here.

Though she had some sense that xenophobia was among the few soldiers, they were at least keeping their emotions in check and in place, they rather not wanted to get into a meaningless argument.

Upon arriving at the labs she was greeted by the same brown haired woman she had met the week before.

"So finally late this time?" She asked.

"Yes, there were a few notes I forgot to work on last night and I went to sleep far from my routine."

"No matter, most things are on hold for a little while before the quarians start to pour in; we won't be working for a little while longer. And also because we need to start to look at some gene strands that were given to us about their physiology, we need to aid in their immune systems."

"Why are we going to do that? I thought our department was only in xeno-archaeological finds."

"Well because we received a new member, who had along with his team been found hiding inside of an apartment block in the Caldera ruins, I believe you are familiar with him?"

The door opened to a red and white skinned salarian with one of his past injuries on his head.

"Professor?" She asked.

The salarian smiled meekly at his appearance to the asari.

"Ah Doctor T'soni, good to see you again, feeling well? From looks, not restrained, and most arguably the toast in your hands suggest, that you are here voluntarily." The salarian scientist gibbered.

"Yes professor, I came here voluntarily, why are you still on Anomia?"

"Umm, ship might have been wrecked and team was stranded, we hid to the south area called Caldera, an interesting place considering it is an actual caldera in the middle of the ground."

Valerie decided to interject. "I think that is enough doctor, I would like you to help bring doctor T'soni up to speed on the advancements of the quarian gene therapy."

"Ah yes, back to work no time to stop. Come along doctor we must discuss much!"

Liara was about half way from dropping her toasted jam sandwich.

XXXXX

Three hours had passed since the message had been sent and as promised by the best of the admirals that Duran had ever known he came through with the promise.

There was now fifty one ships holding position outside of the relay protecting the remaining 20,000 ships that were en route to the other side, but there was just one small problem.

"Sir, enemy count suggests at least 115 ships, most are turian and others are refitted civilian ships, looks like they got desperate and thought we were going to invade. I don't think we're about to do well with that many against us." Tanya said.

"Yes, Tanya we're not going to do well at all with that many against just a few of us. Is the admiral going to hail them?"

"He's already beginning contact." She replied.

Aboard the Few and None, Vance was staring down the proverbial barrel of a loaded gun.

"Hail them." He ordered.

"Com channel is open and hail sent… reply is coming through."

"This is rear Admiral Kirra Cerrick, of the turian hierarchy forces stationed here, we would ask you to stand down and halt in your aggression in our space, those ships are not to leave this area." The female turian admiral said.

Vance had to admire the woman's courage, but he wasn't going to simply stand down for helping a species migrate to safer soil.

"This is Admiral James Vance of the UCAF Few and None, we would like to, though I doubt that is even possible admiral, we will not. The quarians are our responsibility as a race that has suffered greatly from the actions of your council. And we will not turn our backs on a plea of help, these sentient beings deserve better, and as that promise, we will honour it. Even till death."

There was a pause, the rear admiral contemplated what the human had said, if she attacked, she might end up with the quarians in a cross fire. And as much as quarian and turian relations went, she didn't want to risk hitting the migrant fleet. There were enough problems to deal with, especially with the quarians.

She though was not however a telepath as others in her fleet wanted to quarians to suffer, and some were even greatly unhappy with them being able to pack up and go to a new home world.

"When did this agreement occur between the migrant fleet and humanity?" She asked.

"Approximately two weeks ago, one of our ships encountered them while scouting and alerted us after communication between them occurred. Since then we have strived to ensure that their arrival within Nova Stratus was safe and secure, we will not back down on that given promise, your worlds are not of our concern and we have little to regret about the actions we took against your forces in our space. They lie and tell us that they wouldn't attack, and yet they had a staging ground waiting for use against our worlds."

This news was definitely one that she knew might happen, the commanders hadn't been entirely truthful with the council again, and were hiding vital and critical data, if the salarians find out about this, there would be ramifications that the hierarchy would suffer from.

"That is something that my superiors say never happened admiral, I'd like to avoid worse-."

"Admiral the cruiser the Druka, is charging weapons, they aren't responding to hails!" The tactical officer said.

She could only watch in horror as the cruiser opened fire at the human fleet. The mass accelerator round was not intended to hit the humans and over shot into the vessels behind, the migrants that were fleeing.

The shell hit the Idenna with full force, then another two more volleys that quickly followed.

"Captain what do you think you are doing?" She hailed over the emergency channel.

"Doing what the hierarchy should do to traitors." The Druka captain yelled.

At that point all the UNSC vessels and UCAF fired at the cruiser; the hyper velocity rounds tore the cruiser to shreds. And then the turian fleet started to retaliate, Admiral Kirra Cerrick watched in horror as the situation deteriorated into all-out war.

The humans finally believed that reasoning could not be possible and fired all their weapons against the turian fleet. The rounds punched through the layers of armour with ease, but the turians began a desperate answer.

Aboard the Few and None, Vance knew that the admiral wanted to avoid conflict, however her peers did not.

"What is the status on the migrant fleet?"

"They're almost through, the last few more waves and they're done, but the Idenna is damaged across the board and is signalling for emergency help."

"Dammit, get a team with grapples and load the Idenna to the side of the Aspire, and then get us the hell out of here." He ordered.

XXXXX

The Aspire watched in horror as the turians open fired at the quarians, all sense of resolving the situation had gone out of hand and now became a shooting galley for all. Duran watched as the fleet tried to regroup and fall back.

"Tanya, how long until till we get to the Idenna?" He asked.

"Not long, the ship is dead in space, we will only need to adjust the hooks to attach to the hull via EVA suits and then tow the ship with us."

"Do it and fast."

The ship quickly stopped next to the stricken vessel and deployed mag locks to the side of the ship; they towed it in and began to retreat to the relay.

"All ships fall back, our mission here is complete, and we will now rendezvous with the main fleet at Anomia." Vance said as they quickly fled.

Admiral Kirra Cerrick watched as the only chance she had at diplomacy ended, the humans would not be as trusting of the turians from here on in.

XXXXX

LOCATION: Anomia

OPERATION: RED CROSS: COMPLETE

The 50,000 ships of the quarian people hung in mid space above the UCA capital world, though it wasn't as a wonderful sight of the besieged planet. It was welcoming for the quarians a reprieve from the travel.

Anomia was resupplying the ships with the UCAF/UNSC tech required for planetary terraforming, each of many large vessels would be tasked with locating a suitable planet within the Tan system and begin to habit the planet.

Though New Vannoch was the decided name for the Tan capital once called Vin'Cir, the UCAF population within the region was tasked with integrating these new arrivals into the system.

After a lengthy break from the exodus, the UCAF scientists were beginning a full immune system enhancement, the Hyperion Corp had been at full work with both the war and the quarians, and thankfully they had the newer AI working to do both as quickly as possible.

Though there was the issue with AI amongst the quarian population, many found it apprehensive around the sentient machines, and have given pause. While others seemed to be happy and overjoyed of not worrying to an extent of extermination.

It would be another seven days before the fleet departed.

XXXXX

HERE WE GO!


	22. Chapter 16

CH15

XXXXX

The day it rained…

XXXXX

Here we go, another time skip!

XXXXX

The events following the quarian exodus follows as said.

17th/2/2554

The turian hierarchy begins operations once more in retaliation to the Red Cross operation; Choral is captured near the Sigma Relay and held for several weeks as guerrilla fighters assault and assail them.

20th/2/2554

Dr Liara T'soni discovers DNA links for new quarian gene therapy, assistance from Professor Solus quickly enables future treatment in population.

New Vannoch is founded, New Faith as the capital of quarian planets admiralty board discusses circumstance of council space and asks for aid in retrieval of other quarians in the galaxy.

OPERATION: GUARDIAN

22nd/2/2554

Turian ships hold position near Sigma Relay and begin opening assault into the depth of Nova Stratus; coincidentally they discover the old wreckage of covenant ships. Though most of the technology was destroyed, they discover a record of systems left behind and marked as dangerous, but also of great significance.

27th/2/2554

Turian forces arrive within the Warden System and begin search of Forerunner planet known as Delta Hazard: Solis.

Planet is discovered and turians begin attempts to unlock mysterious containment zones, it was later that all communications was lost.

28th/2/2554

Special operations: BLACK team is sent to investigate and destroy all threats and ensure containment of Forerunner site.

On arrival it is discovered that the turians had unearthed the parasitic infestation known as the 'Flood', all attempts at containment failed and base was evacuated.

Black team destroyed facilities and ordered for immediate incineration of planet's surface, they began to search for the surviving turian vessels and destroy any trace of flood.

XXXXX

LAST RECORDING: M4 field video: Accessing…

29th/2/2554

Station 711: Sigma Sector

(This is much like Break the Sky)

The team arrived at the doors of the hatch, within moments of the decontamination sequence the doors opened for them.

Joseph or Six as he was known as entered the infected station, he knew as well as the others what had needed to be done. The flood was loose and they needed to contain it as soon as possible.

"Black Six, move over to cover over there, tell me if you see anything." Leader ONE said.

Black Six did so; he ran to the corner and aimed his rifle at the empty hallway, Joseph cleared the area with a pulse scan. His visor picked up scattered traces of movement but nothing to be definite about the flood.

"Okay we make a clear break for it; we need to plant the bomb at the main labs and then we plant N.2 at the main core that should end that quickly. Six will take the left corridor to the core; we'll take the path on the right and cut across the living quarters."

"Roger that." Six said.

"Good let's get this done and fast." Leader said.

XXXXX

Six covered the distance as quickly as he could; keeping an eye out for any motion or unfortunate survivors he entered the bowls of the station. His MA5C [V] assault rifle was loaded with incendiary to deal with the flood forms, as well as purge anything that might be in the vicinity.

Keeping his eyes on the ceiling his ears picked up a faint sound…

*Moaning*

He kept his gun trained on the ceiling and continued to move, as he got deeper, he noticed the trails of blood everywhere; this was just like the covenant base all over again. He knew that there was a bad sign if there were no bodies.

But he began to hear something.

"I'm alright, right? Those things, they can't touch me. They can't, they can't, I won't let them turn me into one of those things." Someone shouted to themselves.

As he found the source of the noise, he opened the door; he was then struck by a kinetic round to his visor.

"Keep away, I won't turn into those things, keep back." An asari yelled.

The woman was standing next to a shelf with medical supplies and dead bodies around her, most likely they were infected and she had to euthanize them.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to look for survivors and destroy this station, unless you wish to end up as space dust you have to come along with me." He offered.

The asari froze at the soldier's offer.

"I-I don't want to follow-." "Smack"

The asari was down before she could even react; Joseph knew that post-traumatic stress disorder was a normal thing to see in flood survivors. Hefting the unconscious asari over his shoulder he secured a re-breather over her face, the flood was soon to change the environment and he needed to keep the asari alive, she might know about any other crucial events.

Carefully exiting the medical room, the Spartan carried the woman slung over his shoulder to the end of the corridor to the lift; there he struck the switch for the level down to engineering and storage.

Rana Thanoptis the asari as he identified on her tag was the asari in charge of the medical research into the flood, but she seemed too had lost her head when everything went to hell. Joseph had made sure to give her a full psych review and ensure that she could shed some light on what the turians had been thinking.

Another way down and Joseph found the core, the massive mass effect generator was glowing bright as ever as the lift descended, but as it hit the floor. The door opened, and a corpse suddenly fell forward onto the soldier.

He grabbed it and quickly lay it down, he aimed with his assault rifle at anything at all now, he was sure the flood wasn't that ignorant in leaving a critical location so vulnerable.

Rana Thanoptis though was stirring and he knew that an unstable civilian wasn't a good thing inside of a highly delicate procedure involving explosives.

"What? What's happening?" She said as she recovered from her daze.

"I knocked the blue right out of your head, now I need to focus in planting this bomb, please remain calm." He said working.

"Oh, a bomb… A BOMB?" She said in a panic.

"Yes, now please shut up…"

"But we're still inside this goddess forsaken place, and you're planting a bomb?"

"I have a priority mission that needs to come first; I won't allow you to distract me from my work, this is absolutely necessary to be done at all costs, the flood isn't allowed to escape." He said attaching the final cables together.

"But can't you destroy the station from outside?" She asked.

"No, the explosion might actually scatter them even further out and they can survive literally anything, so this is needed first, a tactical Nova bomb."

"A Nova bomb, what's a Nova bomb?" She asked concerned.

"A mini supernova and one that will cover the entire sector in super-heated gas that will vaporise anything within reach." He said placing the plate on.

"But we'd never out run that."

"No we can, we just need to get to the cargo port and escape that way, my leader has probably planted his one by now, come on." Joseph said as he grabbed her.

They ran down the length of the core to an external lift located on the other side of the rim that surrounded the core. But as he went he saw movement, and lots.

"Keeping going, I'll hold them off." Joseph said firing his MA5C [V].

The bullets made contact with the closest combat form; the bullets tore the fleshy remains of the turian into neat chunks. And he continued to move while firing, Rana Thanoptis had managed to get to the lift door and signal for it.

Joseph fired another dozen rounds into the next combat form and knocked a spore carrier back with a grenade, the resulting explosion knocked another wave back, and some fell into the core and were vaporised by the extreme energy.

He entered the lift and shut it quickly behind him. "We're nearly there, don't worry." He said assuring to the asari not to panic.

"Who said I was panicking, I'm fine, there are just so many of those things out to get us and violate us as much as possible, why would I be panicking?" She said hysterically.

"Now you're panicking." He said.

The lift opened to the empty room of the cargo bay, everything had been squared away, except the corpses, the many corpses that flooded the entire length of the cargo bay.

"I think we might have gotten off at the wrong stop." Rana Thanoptis said.

"No we haven't, this is it, and I know what we need to do, as I explained, we need to exit this place. How long can you survive in the vacuum of space?" He asked.

"At least an hour with the re-breather on, why do you want to know?"

A large 'THUNK' from above alerted Joseph to an immediate threat, a large- no a massive tentacle appeared from above, it prodded the surrounding area for its next victim.

"That's not good, Rana, I would like you to open the cargo doors and vent us all into space, don't worry. It's either the tentacle or a cold death in space, which one do you want?" He asked.

The tentacle lashed out at him and he ducked, the attack knocked away the doctor who had suddenly decided to go for the latter.

"I'll keep this thing busy, just open the doors." He yelled.

The MA5 fired off its incendiary rounds at the massive flood tentacle, the bullets chewed through the arm like paper but the regenerative capabilities of a flood grave mind wasn't the easiest thing to kill.

Ducking below another strike, Joseph continued to fire his rifle, the arm flexed and the hit the ground. This time it grabbed his leg, Joseph held tight and lifted his rifle, the tentacle then began to puss at regions; Joseph put his aim at work and fired.

The pusses and blisters exploded across the body revealing a weakness in the flesh. Joseph fired his assault rifle again, this time on the other side of the tentacle, the puss blew off and the monstrosity started to quiver in pain.

"How much longer until the doors open, Rana?" He shouted.

"Another minute, I think."

"We don't have a minute; just vent the entire room now." He yelled.

The asari was as anxious about dying as anyone and hit the switch. The sudden depressurisation lifted everything off the ground; Joseph unloaded the rest of his MA5 into the body of the flood and deactivated his magnetic clasps.

Floating freely he jumped towards the asari doctor and grabbed her about the waist as they floated out into open space.

"Hold on tight, the Black Dagger should pick us up now." He said looking into the void.

And as said, the massive prowler arrived, opening its hatches, they floated in.

"Commander we're on board." Joseph said pulling himself up.

"Roger that, we're leaving now."

The ship jolted out of reach of the station, and then accelerated to slip-space, no one would witness the destruction of the station, but a recording from a local subspace drone picked up the high energy output of the detonating station.

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"So, you want a drink?" Joseph asked.

"Yes thank you, I'd like one, but less on alcohol, I don't want to waste myself after just surviving that place." She said walking over to the decon room.

After a hiss of gases and a full bio scan along with a system check, the doors opened, Joseph stepped through. He was greeted by the sight of the rest of black team.

"So, rescued the damsel in distress eh?" Howard said.

"Shut up, I was doing as I was ordered. And besides when do you have time for women?" He replied.

"Hey, I take offence to that; I have a girl at home." He said defensively.

Leader decided to give him a roper greeting. "Well at least your back on board, and thanks to your asari friend here we might be able to track the rest of the flood samples the turians shipped."

"Wait, there's still more?" He said confused.

"Yeah, the split faced morons fucked up hard, they have a shipment heading to a place called Noveria. They also have a lab there with nearly five hundred personnel there."

Rana suddenly interrupted. "Wait Noveria, but Noveria has one of the best containment procedures in the galaxy, there's no way that the labs there would be overrun."

"That's what you think, the 'flood' isn't a virus or a simple bio hazard lady, those things evolve, they adapt and are intelligent. If we're correct, the idiots who are shipping those bodies there have no idea that those containers won't hold."

"But why would the turian hierarchy study such dangerous materials then?" She asked.

"What? You didn't know?"

"Know about what?"

"The turians are getting desperate and ignorant, they thought the Warden system, and one place that all flagged as highly dangerous regions was never to be reached. The stupid fuckers thought they could study what we feared. But instead all of them died, and now one of their ships got loose carrying highly unstable containment units filled with flood."

"Why would they willingly send out such a team in the first place?" She asked.

"Maybe because they were losing the war, the turians weren't exactly too happy with the thought of admitting defeat, especially since we managed to get the entire migrant fleet to safety and annihilate their forces in a single sweep. So they got desperate and started to scour our region of space for anything relevant, and instead found the flood."

"Is there anything that you can do? You know to stop the flood?"

"Well we already have, and that was one method, Noveria will not be an easier target, we'll most likely have to disable the defences and land a team at the main star port and then deploy an emergency evac team."

"And then?"

"We let off all our Nova Bombs in the region and vaporise all of Noveria, and if anyone gets left behind, they die."

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30th/2/2554

Noveria

The trip to Noveria wasn't easy, there had been plenty of detours and plenty of problems, the first being that they needed to evacuate the entire population for evacuation which proved less than easy, also the fact that there was a need for the 11th fleet to be deployed along with them to evacuate the entire population.

And after the last 17 hours since, they were now rushing against time; the flood had apparently escaped as predicted and was now running rampant throughout all of Noveria. The surface was an obvious change as the surface was now green and heavily yellowed.

Black team was ordered to hold the flood back in Port Hanshan until a Nova could be cleared for launch, this proved somewhat difficult.

"Frag out." A marine yelled.

A grenade then detonated in the corridor of the office complexes, bits of fleshy debris now filled the hallways this was just like Warden all over again.

"Sir, we need to move the people out of here, where's the next evac ship?" A security officer asked.

"It's down the hall, to your left; the marines will wait for you there." Corporal Toombs replied.

The security detachment headed off with their horde of panicking civilians, they had never thought that Noveria would ever be overrun by a containment failure such as this.

Down the hallway, three Spartans held back another leviathan class flood, the monstrous being wasn't the simplest thing to kill, and they had at least eight eyes and a dozen strong limbs.

The abomination fell to the ground as the Spartans continued their evacuation of civilians; Joseph was sure now the turians were regretting to ever come into Nova Stratus again without thinking about the consequences.

"How many more people?"

"At least another seven waves, which is fifty six in each."

"God damn these idiots fucked up hard."

"No need to tell me boss."

"Where's the commander?"

"He went to face grave mind."

"Alone? Is he insane?"

"No just doing what Spartans do best."

XXXXX

In the Peak 15 complex Ian faced off with the massive fleshy being sitting in front of him.

"So, the child of my enemy returns?" The telepathic voice asked.

"You know about as much as I do, we defeated you on Warden before and we'll do it again."

"Hah, such foolishness, we are invincible, we are always eternal, as the gods before us, we were created as such and we shall do so again."

"The old gods? The time before when the forerunners existed, they purged them remember? Your kind fled from destruction, and narrowly avoided your own end, and then came back in form that they had never anticipated."

"That is why we shall rise once more, the end of days is still at hand, as long as we exist, your kind shall be doomed."

"Not unless we stop you before then, besides the timer on my pack says, it's hammer time."

With that, he drew the rocket launcher from his back.

Port Hanshan

"Teams are now to fall back to the pelicans; our mission here is complete, commander's orders."

"Roger that, all UNSC forces retreat back to designated evacuation points, we're getting the hell off of this frozen ball."

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The set of events that followed were

Noveria was successfully destroyed, the Nova bombs detonated as pre-set coordinates, all traces of flood were vaporised by set explosions. Following set of information was sent to the citadel council, turian hierarchy was to be blamed for illegal study of highly adaptive virus, and death toll was to be shifted to them for compensation for all who died.

Rana Thanpotis is now a working member for the UCA medical research and development centre on Anomia, she resides in lab 2401 with Dr T'soni.

All research was destroyed to ensure no future events of disaster are to ever occur, Joseph of Black team was later recorded as Retired as of 30th/2/2554.

Ian unit 2233 Black Leader was listed as MIA after encounter with grave mind, and no one has yet to locate the remains of the commander.

Noveria is later rebuilt, but has been mostly submerged due to the extreme temperatures of the Nova, and is regarded as a lower class research facility in light of the crisis.

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And so this is it, the end of the chapter behind the Noveria Crisis


	23. Chapter 17

CH16

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Events of tomorrow come today!

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After the Noveria Crisis

1st/3/2554

Turian Hierarchy begins a major assault into Nova Stratus, Tan and Shanxi is both major points of attack.

The quarian people begin to brace for the worst as turian forces begin invasion of New Vannoch and Moreth along with Irina, the local force of UCA marines begin a desperate defence of the colonies, and repel turian ground troops for three weeks.

Local fleets begin to repel the turian fleets in orbit, and a major strike force is landed in the west to aid the UCAF marines.

The Aspire is sent along with the 3rd fleet to repel attackers on the quarian home front.

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17th/3/2554

Shanxi is recovered as UNSC forces arrive in system along with New Covenant troops; the elites begin full scale war against the turian hierarchy.

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OPERATION: AMITY AND SOUL

New Vannoch

The sight of two hundred covenant ships was said to terrify even the most skilled and veteran marines, but to the UCAF this was no longer the case. Duran watched from the viewport as the hundreds of ships began to open fire upon the fleet of turian vessels, the plasma barrages and pulse laser cut their ships to ribbons.

The fleet of 200 ships had been sent by the new prophet called Amity to aid the alliance and the UNSC against those who had attacked them. Arbiter Vadam himself was aboard the 'Soul and Faithful Redemption' a super carrier that dwarfed almost all the turian ships combined.

"Fight, for the children of our gods, for the light gifted to them shall protect all. We are the sword that follows their shield and so we shall swath death for all those who oppose the faith of true peace with violence." The arbiter's voice heralded.

The fleet descended upon the planet with an endless stream of fighters and drop-ships, the sight for anyone below was terrifying, but that was only to the turians on the opposing side.

"To the UNSC forces, we have returned in time of your plight, and we shall reclaim what had been lost, let us fight together and purge those who dare attack in their own false beliefs." The prophet called.

Duran was stunned that the entire armada of covenant forces had arrived in their time of need, though this wasn't the first time, but the prophet was an interesting twist.

"All UCA forces begin full repulse of the turian forces, do not attack covenant troops, and we have priorities!"

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Shanxi

Jack ran behind his warthog as a volley of mass accelerators punched into his cover, he only waited a few seconds longer before Luke appeared.

"So, how long do you think before these assholes retreat?"

"Another eight hours probably, if we're lucky, then again…"

"THUNK"

"Probably no way in hell, they're really going for blood now."

"No kidding, I thought they were asking for our orange juice."

"Oh yeah, what happened to that?"

"I drank it."

"F***, well we can't do much now, got gum?"

"Out of that as well, hang on I thought you had like four sticks?"

"That's four pieces, and that was almost a week ago."

"Oh, well shit, we've got nothing more to do than kick ass without gum."

"Right, well lock and load." Jack said.

The two of them reloaded their weapons with full magazines and prepared to slug themselves out of the situation. The MA5D [VF] variant was a reversed engineered weapon of the mass accelerator rifles of the turians, though it wasn't difficult to reproduce their own mass driver technology as they had in the past.

Jack fired his rifle at the turian that was unfortunate enough to be standing in the open, the kinetic bullets or hot shots. The bullets had mini heat sinks attached to the casing of the bullets and transferred the heat into them as they are fired. As a standard, all bullets were to be size 3.5mm by 5mm round and capable of packing weights up to 20grams to 50.

Jack chose the latter and picked up mostly 50s to deal with the turians, he liked how they thought they were so superior until they get taken down a few notches.

The hyper velocity projectiles tore through the armour and shredded the turian like paper, Luke following suit fired upon the squad they had pinned. The rounds shredded them into mini bits of flesh.

"Well that went well." Luke said reloading his heat clip.

"Nah, you think, these guys are just acting easy."

Another turian appeared this time with a strange glow surrounding him.

"Shit, duck." Luke yelled.

The turian stretched out his hand and soon the entire car was knocked at them. Jack rolled away from the immediate threat and fired his assault rifle; the bullets pierced the side of the turian who had now run from his sights.

"Damn, Luke? You still with me soldier?"

"Right here, that son of a bitch, those cowardly fuckers have fucking psychics with them."

"No that is like the advents or the vanguards, these things are a weaker, they can't put up force fields and PSI shields, they have to be weaker."

"Which is good for us how?" Luke asked grabbing a grenade.

"Because they don't know how to fight like we do."

At that moment the turian appeared once more throwing a sphere of dark energy at them, Luke hid behind the car while Jack fired a HE round at the sphere, he could only hope. The sphere as it was known as pull, suddenly jolted the projectile explosive round at the unfortunate turian biotic, he watched as the round came from the corner and detonated in his face.

Jack moved out of cover, he knew that if the turian was dead he'd make sure and if he wasn't then he'd make sure. Getting to the remains of the turian he found that his tactic had paid off, the turian was definitely dead, and the grenade cut had blown the face of the turian.

"Well looks like someone saw a good show." Luke said walking over.

"Yeah, but I think we might want to keep this in mind, you know, for other purposes, if they can't block explosives like that, then we might start packing more grenades and demo charges."

"Fine, I'll keep that as a mental note for later." Luke said.

The two walked about through the city streets until they found another warthog in better condition.

"I'll drive, you go gunner." Jack said as he taxed the driver's seat.

"As usual." Luke said sighing.

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Shanxi

Eastern border

Red or Cameron had been having the most wonderful of days, the sun the beach, and the nice surf. But too bad he couldn't go swimming; he was sitting in a water runner waiting for his next deployment with the 81st marines.

"What did I do god?" He asked to himself.

The boats headed off to their destination, Han Shi beach, the twenty kilometre white sandy beach lined with lethal high explosive sensors, he couldn't believe that they were landing him into the area to disable the mines.

(From the beach to the bunkers it's about 25m so, that's why they couldn't air strike or anything else, and also the region had heavy jamming to allow the main forces to land without danger of reinforcements arriving)

"Welcome to the 81st water borne, we have good surf and a lot of open sky; get ready for the ride of your life boy." Cowboy said.

"Why did they send me here after Anomia? Was it the soup, come on, what happened."

"I don't think they're listening anymore boy, come on, we got hell to raze."

"God, what did I do?"

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(We'll get back to Red ASAP, but after a certain amount of things are done. He deserves a rest for now… I don't have any place either than cameos and some other things. I swear he'll be back in the next chapter.)

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New Vannoch

"Get down!" A marine yelled.

A red glowing shorthand rocket flew over their position, the quarian local marines had found themselves stuck in a fire fight they had not been trained for. Their counterpart UCA marines however did, and responded accordingly.

"Frag out." Grey yelled.

A resounding thud of the M40 grenade was enough to distil anyone's confidence in the field, Grey's squad had been sent to deal with the turian invasion that day. The attack was not very surprising as such hatreds towards the humans were ever present, but it was for the quarians.

The attack though was a predicted move that had been calculated by the AIs back on Anomia's Hyperion Base. They had anticipated a 75-79% chance that the turians would not regard the neutral immigration at the hands of their enemies as legal.

This is what the UCAF had come in force for, to throw the turians off world, they had no place in judging another race or beginning a callous campaign of devastation against another race to get to them. But they had underestimated on quality humanity always gave, we have hope.

Another wave of turians began to rush to his position, Grey changed to his dual wielded M7 [A] SMGs, the bullets chewed through some of the turians at close range, however the squad fell back and returned volley.

Grey ducked back as they fired at his position, then it suddenly stopped. Grey looked about into the open field as he heard something. The turians had stopped along with everyone else; they were looking at the skies.

Grey looked at what they were watching. "By the holy forerunners…"

The entire sky had been covered with tens of thousands of ships and countless fighters, but what caught his attention were the drop pods heading to greet them.

"Get to cover!" He yelled.

The troops did so, the quarians followed suit unknown to what was occurring, but they adhered to the warning, and as such they did it in time. A wave of pods crashed into the courtyard, the turians were knocked back as the pods landed and then opened.

There was now an eight foot elite in white trimmed armour and wearing a helmet that covered her mouth, her helmet stylised with a pattern of black energy sword on top and had two similar ones on her legs.

"This is our opposition? You better fear your coming death faithless…" She said drawing out a duel energy sword combo.

The turians had no means of understanding what they elite even meant, but they understood that energy swords would not be a very welcome thing for them. The elite had a vastly impressive speed as she sprinted the entire length of the distance between her and the turians in seconds.

The turians panicked as the energy sword cleaved apart three of the squad, the two blades shredded through flesh and armour alike, screams of the turians were then washed out by an almighty roar.

Grey, had the quarians near him carefully step out, he knew that the UNSC/UCAF had signed a treaty, but he was unsure to if these were the same elites. Grey only moved into visual sight and said. "Quick and deadly, an interesting new suit you have there, a lot more slim than the last."

The elite turned to face him, a moment's tension and the elite deactivated her swords. "You have better knowledge of skill Spartan; I thought you'd have forgotten me by now."

"So it is you, isn't it Unarra Moremee."

The elite seemed to smile at her old name. "And greetings to you, Faux of Madrigal."

"Now I feel nostalgic, how have you been?" He said reaching out a hand for a handshake.

"Better than you, the new prophet took control after the schism, most of the fighting is now being dealt by Fleet master Gurril Novurramee."

"That old bastard, I never thought he'd give up on faith."

"Well it struck him harder than the rest of us, he had faith burned across whole worlds for his mistake, and now he tries to redeem himself. Recent news from the front says there is heavy in fighting amongst the loyalist factions."

Grey looked about as he walked to his squad with Una, the quarians looked at the imposing figure of the female elite commander.

"Who is this?" A quarian marine asked.

"An old friend, she and her squad will be aiding us in defence." Grey said replacing his M7 clips.

But Una was more confused about the quarians. "Faux, who are they?"

"They're migrants from the rest of the galaxy; we only just moved them here a few weeks ago, though the turians have little love for the quarians, as you can see they're attacking them to draw out our forces."

"A cowardly tactic, we would have simply faced you to the death rather than cower in the shadows and wait for a given weakness." She hissed.

"Well that cowardly tactic almost worked, we need to get moving. If we can reach the west convoy, then we can get to the Fenris guard just north of our position, I'm sure Galen would be itching for a real fight."

"Then let us move with haste." The elite said pulling out two plasma rifles.

"You know, I'm really starting to like you again."

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Shanxi

Jack and Luke rode down the length of the wrecked Domo highway, the main freeways had been clogged by evacuating civilians and this was the only other means of reaching command. From what they could hear, General Williams was holding his command post just north and waiting for assistance.

"Anything in the skies?" Jack asked.

"For the millionth fucking time, no."

And then a gunship appeared behind them, its guns blazed a close nit tail behind them. "Now there's flyer's." Luke yelled.

The gauss hog bucked as it propelled the kinetic slug at 1/4th the speed of light, the round impacted the shields and buckled them, but only managed to dent the hull of the gunship. This time it began evasive manoeuvres to avoid another lethal strike.

Luke only clipped the left wing with his second shot, but the effect was enough for the mass of flying weapons to stop abruptly and attempt to pull up. Luke then fired his third volley, the round truck the engine at the rear, the fuel cells ignited as the shell obliterated the engines.

The now flying husk made a brilliant display of light as it collided with the highway.

"That's it, next time I'm driving." Luke said.

The warthog drove through the rest of the way to UNSC command base without interruption, though both of them watched as more turian vessels began to assault the region. Jack decided to hurry before the entire city was overrun.

But as they approached the main compound they realised that the turians had already begun their siege. Luke and Jack were amazed at how proficient the turians were, they had to be desperate to be assaulting command itself.

"Shit, we better double back, I don't want these bastards firing on us when we just arrived." Jack said reversing slowly.

"Wait, what about command?" Luke asked.

"I think the term FUBAR suits this right, shit just hit the fan, and I don't want to try anything stupid. The general must have probably evacuated the base and fell back to the east wing of the city."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because Williams is on an open frequency channel, and I think the turians know."

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New Faith

Una ran down to the empty streets of the quarian city, as much as it looked, the place reminded her of the recent war between them and the humans, it had been just a few months ago she was fighting Grey in one on one combat.

"Time sure changes." Grey said from behind her.

"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" She said walking to an empty alleyway.

"Which way do we go now?" A marine asked.

"We should head to Fen's (Fenris) position; he said he was holding ground with the Spartan Blue team and Katana in range of command, they might appreciate some help."

"Very well, let us proceed with speed." Una said as she sprinted.

"Hmm, she has changed a bit."

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New Faith

North Highway

"Fight as brothers shall, these pieces of trash are nothing the brotherhood can handle." Fenris Galen yelled.

Armoured hulking figures shaped as wolves tore into the turian squads without mercy, the fight had been mostly one sided, the turians had expected the convoy of super humans to be unsuspecting and ambushed them in their wake.

"Pitiful little xeno, die like the scum you are!" Galen yelled as he tore his five talons into another turian.

There had been only ten in his squad, and the turians with fifty, yet now things were different, the turians had lost nearly thirty and the wolves had not lost a drop of blood. Their ornamented armour that had been shaped as their spirit guide, viciously gauged through the aliens like paper, there was little or no mercy for those who attack the innocent.

Fenris Wolves as they are known originate on their home world of Valence Prima, the main origins of their species and their heritage as it was passed down to them by the gods. These half human and half wolf species can adjust themselves to suit the environment of combat at will, and can transform into their two halves to defeat any opponent.

And as such their physical form for being half wolf and half human is a hybrid of strengths, the wolves are granted greater heights and physical prowess as well as intellect and senses. Galen was no exception as he was selected for the Spartan V candidacy along with his brothers. They were now not only wolves, but the bane of all enemies of man and Fenris.

The two and a half meter tall Fenris tore apart a wave of four with his claws as he rushed another team, turians left and right attempted to flee. The wolves had no intention of losing prey. "Surround them my brothers; there is no mercy for those who are weak!"

The two fastest cut the turians off with inhuman speeds, they were a blur to the turians as they attempted to stop them. Then the rest of the pack came down upon the survivors, this was their final kill.

It didn't take long for the wolves to feast upon the remaining survivors, the turians could only cower as blades shredded and claws rendered. The sight would make most species regurgitate.

And it almost made the Spartan IIIs, however the Spartan IIs only watched on in rather disgust and interest, the sight of these new Spartan types made them appreciate the training and capabilities, but also made them wonder how they were ever chosen.

"I think I just lost my lunch…" Ash said gripping his helmet.

"Mine to…" Olivia concurred.

The slaughter fest didn't take long, the remains of the turians were left as the wolves walked back to the Spartans. Galen was the first to respond. "Sir, all targets neutralised."

Fred as the commander temporarily in charge simply nodded and said. "Acknowledged Galen, take your squad into defensive formation, we need to secure the route from any further attacks."

"Sir, yes sir." The wolf said.

The tactical squad of wolves moved about to form their set perimeter and began unloading heavy cased weapons, the Vulcan 50s and heavy lancer cannons as well and the 75mm anti-tank gun that the heaviest wolf carried.

Fred asked Linda. "These new Spartans know how to fight, but they don't act like normal soldiers, do they?"

"Fred, appreciating the subtlety of that comment, those wolves know less about combat skill and seemingly more about slaughter."

It didn't take long for everyone's attention to change as a movement of friendlies approached. "Check your sights, we have friendlies in bound." Fred said walking over to a warthog that covered the gory street.

A quick signal of lights from the approaching squad and then they appeared in the open, Fred and the other Spartans watched as Grey's squad appeared. They were also followed by an elite officer…

Fred didn't waste time or breath as the squad reached their sights, but to Grey's dismay the Spartan II reached for a knife in his shoulder holster and grabbed the female elite. Una responded with drawing an energy knife to the Spartan's neck.

Grey moved in between putting his hands on both their weapons. "Stand down, both of you."

Fred paused to do so. "Who is this?" He asked.

"This Unarra Moremee, she's a part of the new covenant, they aren't at war with us anymore." Grey explained.

"It is true, our people were misled by the false prophets and we slaughtered your race without knowing of the gift the gods had passed to you. If it had not been for the great inheritor we might have never known."

"So, we're the very thing your gods created and you've been fighting us this whole time?"

"Yes." Una replied.

"I won't say any more than that… this situation only makes our priority for the quarians first, we should head to command, though the elite keeps her distance between us." Fred said walking off.

The other Spartans obviously had taken to an uncertain stance towards the elite, this was one thing that they never felt comfortable about.

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The path continues…

(Hey guys I hope you enjoyed this segment, the elites are here, along with their new prophet that has sworn to aid the humans!)

There is also a important thing that you should know, the Inheritor was called Vincent, now please remember that name because there is only religious names of the person later on…


	24. Chapter 18

CH17

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Wake me up before you go go…

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(To clear many things up, this is only 2554 please remember, this is only a few months after the human covenant war, and there were other events that took place in different times, I will need to create another story on that whenever I can.)

Prophet of Amity is a prophet who encountered the Inheritor some years back, and he was enlightened to the truth of the other prophets, he quickly began to gather as many allies within the covenant and forge his own military standing to deal with any who betray the new covenant.

Arbiter is now Grand Arbiter; he controls the order of faith and redemption a new order of the covenant known as the guardians. They uphold the religious and the military as well as peacekeeping factions of the new covenant, their abilities equal a lot of power and majority is elites.

(Oh BTW, there's about 7 arbiters here, there aren't any others you'll hear about until Ascension)

And to answer the question presented to me by a reader about the venerator class Spartans, they were produced as a faster and more well trained force, hence the name venerator. And also when they were naming the next generation there was a debate for the ALPHA (IV) Spartans and themselves. So they simply made them No.5 as the V emblem on their armour and class, and was named by their creator Valerie as the Venerated.

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New Faith

Redemption and Revelations

Grand Arbiter Vadam watched from the view screen of his new ship Redemption and Revelations, this CCS cruiser was one that had been commissioned for use by the prophet, he had specified the need to deal with greater threats as soon as possible and reconcile with the humans.

Vadam himself had believed as he returned home with his fellow Sangheili that the prophet had arrived to destroy them. But in fact arrived to bring news of a great being called the Inheritor, the forerunners had still lived and gifted the great inheritor with their spirit and strength.

No one could believe this until an ultra-luminal communications was activated, and no one, except the forerunners had access to such technology, so it was amazing as the great being revealed himself in light and form across their space. The ethereal figure told them of great things and many things yet to come of their future if they aided the humans in Nova Stratus, as they were gifted as well.

Many things remained yet to be explained, but there was definite enough proof of the forerunners existence on his shield world, it was positioned in Nova Stratus with many artefacts from millennia past.

The many species heeded the call of the forerunners and quickly began to assemble a new force, while the other remaining prophets could not believe the unfolding of events; they kindly stood down before the almighty entity and waited for judgement.

Amity spared their lives, but held them under watch of the new covenant. Only one prophet stood against the humans and the new covenant, the prophet of Salvation. Though he was now at war against the majority of the covenant, he had fled into regions far to escape judgement.

All that now remained were the warring factions of the brutes, though the fleetmaster of Korvanass would deal with them.

Amity came to Vadam to offer him a second chance, not as a tool but shield and sword, like the Spartans, he would be granted great strength by forging a new order. His order, the arbiters order, they had become a new symbol where there would no longer be corruption and lies, but true strength and faith.

Many other species of the covenant began to rally alongside the arbiters, and soon they had enough to deal with all of these turians. The entire armada known as the 'Assault of Faith and Amity' was their call sign.

"My lord, there is a communications from the surface." An ultra in command gear said.

"Put it through." He responded.

An image of the soldier appeared, it was a Spartan. "Grand Arbiter I presume?" The white armoured soldier said.

"Ah a Spartan, one of the Nova Stratus, I thought they said…"

"Well news of our deaths has been greatly exaggerated; I am Commander Grey of the 151st Spartan V. I was told that you were in orbit."

"Yes we arrived in time I see?"

"Well let's just say that these aren't as bad as you, but that doesn't mean that they aren't as persistent."

"Where would you need us to be?"

"Nowhere, I have support with me already, it's just that we cannot defend the other species we live with here, and they are suited aliens called quarians. They were exiled into our space by these turians, and they attacked because of their migration into our space. We can hold ground, but I need to push to the orbital pad and retake the main defences, I was hoping if you could spare some time."

"Cowards, as I see them, and thank you for the offer, it has been some time since I was ever on the field. My brethren shall aid you Grey."

"My thanks to you Arbiter." Grey said.

The com line went dead. "Begin full deployment, we shall see how these fools believe that the chosen shall fall so easily with the sword and shield of faith that guides us."

A chorus of responses rang through. "By your word Arbiter."

XXXXX

Grey switched off the com line, he turned back to face the admirals. "We have support from the covenant; if the turians attempts another break through, you have their support." Grey said.

The group in front of him physically sighed of relief while others seemed to continue to look at him.

"Can we trust this new covenant? Form what you said they are absolutely xenophobic to other races."

"Yes, but that was until recently, their people had a major reformation and one of the beings called an inheritor came into contact with them not long ago, he warned us not to attack. They are sending aid and a major force."

"Can we rely on them?" Raan asked.

"Yes we can, they may have been reliant on warfare, but they aren't the ones to go against promises."

"Let's just hope they can clear the field."

XXXXX

In orbit the fleet began to deploy their troops, anyone now looking they watched as nearly thousands of ships began to dot out the skies. Drop-ships of all sizes and types descended along with the tens of thousands to hundreds of fighter escorts.

This was the new Covenant's strength, a strength that could never be crushed or broken, this was the will of the gods, and they were their instrument.

From the furthest gunship, Ship master Rtas 'Vadum watched as his ship the Shadow of Intent began its assault on the critical locations. The fleet assumed the standard pattern formation of invasion, there they would allow the first waves to take control and allow them to control the skies.

"Ship master, there are at least twelve locations of these heretics stationed across the region that is serving as command points, what shall we do?" An elite flight officer asked.

Rtas as he had always been was a highly intellectual commander; none have yet to survive his tactical mind yet.

"Position the frigates to destroy whatever remains of their air support and push the forwards CCS cruiser to engage any of their defences, then bombard the locations, we are not authorised to scourge these locations, but we will destroy each none the less."

The fleet did as it was coordinated and formed to meet their enemies head on; the first few turian positions began to defend and fired mass accelerators to the fleet. Many of the attacks seemed to bounce off the shields and much to the turians dismay; the covenant began to laser their locations.

Rtas watched as his gunship descended on to the battlefield, the landing site was in the northern tetra zone, called Havens End, mostly a human town it provided the foods that were consumed by both quarian and human.

Now it had been mostly abandoned, with whatever remained of the UCAF defending it, Rtas looked about, this place reminded him far too greatly about the war that had only ended a few months before. But he steeled his emotions and drew his weapons.

"Dun'do, take your squad with Tera 'Moree and push to the left section of this town, Garenmee with follow with me." Rtas ordered.

"Good hunting." Tera said.

The teams moved about as they did, Rtas moved with speed that all sangheili do, fast and agile, he ducked through the ruins of places that had been bombed by the turians, there was little to see, the occasional dead corpse of a marine and civilian.

As his squad moved to attack the turians they could hear the local fire fight in progress.

(Here's for you Silver, mate)

"Red, get down." A marine yelled.

"Frag out." Another voice called.

And explosion and continued gunfire, that was enough for Rtas to know that there was someone they could help. He signalled his squad to follow as they moved towards the fighting, they prepared, Rtas drew out his energy sword and a plasma repeater.

Coming about the bend of the street, he could see the evident attack of the turians against a single marine squad, Rtas watched as the marines found themselves heavily outnumbered. He drew his sword in their direction.

"Move to engage." He yelled.

The squad did as they ordered, two special ops moved with their cloaking active and jumped arount the flanks of the turians, and another activated his jetpack and flew to strike from above. Rtas and the remainder attacked from in front.

"There is no mercy for our enemies." He yelled.

The sudden attack by the elites caught the turians off guard, they desperately attempted to defend as they assaulted. Rtas fired his repeater and charged with his energy sword, the turians had only managed to return fire as the elites charged, but not for long.

The spec ops took to the offensive and grappled the turians sides, the first died with energy swords impaling them while the air assault began to descend. The turians found themselves cornered and trapped in a hopeless situation.

Rtas charged through with his blade, the energy sword cleaved the first four and then another three, there seemed be only death as the elites unleashed their fury.

Meanwhile Cameron 'Red' found himself in a rather unique situation, he had expected nothing less from what the elites were dishing out, especially since he knew what they were like. He just hadn't expected them not to attack him.

"Unbelievable…" He said impressed.

"Okay stop day dreaming, we still have some of these pricks to finish." Greg said hefting an assault rifle over.

The squad took to their own offensive and began attacking the remaining turians; they and the elites began to clear a blood bath in seconds. As the last turian fell, Rtas turned his attention to the human marines.

Things were at a pause until he walked over to the nearest one he could see was in charge. "I am Rtas Vadum of the New Covenant, are you the commander of these soldiers?" He asked.

The red haired human seemed to pause and then respond. "No, none of us are, we, I mean I am only the corporal as well as the others, we don't have higher ranks than that."

"So none are in charge?"

"We got separated from the main platoon, the others had to move up to the north west to begin the assault and we were left behind."

"Then it seems both can benefit a helpful exchange, will you aid us in repelling these invaders? We have a full convoy moving north of us."

"Well seeing as we aren't going to regroup for a while, we'll join." The uncertain marine said.

"Good, what is your name?"

"Cameron, or just cam or red, there's no need for formalities."

"Very well then, Red, move your squad up behind ours, we make for the turian lines as quickly as possible."

"Yes sir." The marine said uncertain.

"Hey, Red?" Greg asked.

"What?"

"Did we just volunteer for a suicide mission?"

"Yeah, when we enlisted."

XXXXX

Shanxi

Jack pulled his car alongside the scorpion assault variant tank, he watched as its heavily reinforced armour took the weight of the assault; it seemed to glide through the waves of turian armour like a razor through paper.

"Man, Williams knows how to stick it." Luke said.

"Yeah, let's just be glad he remembers us."

"Yeah but from where, last we saw of him was on the Accord, which was like three years ago."

"Still better than nothing, we'll just have to refresh his memory once we see him." Jack said pushing the drive down.

The warthog flew through the siege lines, anyone could see the large scale assault, the turians were getting desperate as the last of their lines were being crippled, and the UCAF was striking as hard as possible and not even breaking a sweat.

"We've got hostiles." Luke yelled.

Three turian APCs suddenly turned their turret mounted guns towards the hog, Jack tail swiped across the asphalt and pulled the car in reverse into an alleyway, then hitting the gears back into drive, and he barrelled the car out of weapons range.

"I think that we should really consider getting a caddy." Jack said.

"What?"

"We need a car that looks absolutely harmless, yet pack almost a shitload of speed."

"But golf caddies aren't that fast."

"Who said anything about golf caddies?"

Kicking the car into another 180 turn, Jack swung the car about to drive through another section of the alley way, he knew these streets as soon as they landed, it wasn't so different from Anomia or the other developed cities. Plenty of tunnels and alley networks, he could drive this car through anything.

As they approached command 1, they could see how much things had improved since they had hit the landing zones. The area was cleared of most of the rubble and it seemed that they had managed to reorganise a proper defence, and also the large covenant assault cruiser sitting above them all.

"What the fuck?"

XXXXX

New Faith

Una ran through the fields of the dead, there were nearly corpses on every inch of ground, never had she witnessed such blood shed since Ventris nearly five years ago. Her plasma rifles parted another squad of turians with ease, heating up she cooled them down.

The Spartan II and III along with the V had been rolling through the turians lines with ease, there was only large amounts of corpses left since when they had entered the battle. The Fenris and the Vindicators had been slaughtering their way through the lines of the hierarchy forces with ease.

She made her last run to the end of the fight, the UCAF marines were giving all they had, the turians were buckling after the sustained assault from both the Covenant and Spartans. Clearing the last stretch of earth before her, she leaped past the exchange of gunfire. The UCAF had finally surrounded the turian strike forces on the planet and cornered them in one section of land in the west of the city.

As she walked through to the main platoon of marines, the Fenris geared up for a final kill, to them there was little mercy for the turians.

"These cowards still defy the Fenris? They are fools to believe that their filthy feet can stand the earth." Galen said to Ferrel.

"I agree, let us our kill be swift, and may our aim be true…"

"Charge!" He yelled.

The Wolves poured from their position once more, bullets rained upon the turians and was followed by heavy rounds from their MA5 [V], the new magnetic accelerator features were added some weeks before and now the feature became standard with all their weapons.

The bullets tore through the kinetic shield and carved their opponents to shreds, the wolves burnt their way through the turians without mercy.

"Let these xeno scums die!"

XXXXX

CITADEL

In the Serpent Nebula, the massive space station of the council sat in the vast coloured space, the stationed held millions of lives as it were in balance with the billions of the galaxy. The council though as great as they were, were in turmoil.

"This war is of our own concern Tevos, not of the Asari Republic." Valern said deftly.

"Yes, but I have to emphasise that the mobilisation of the turian forces within the region have only excelled and have escalated the conflict within the region as explained to us by the human Rey-159."

"That human is not part of his military anymore; he has no way to know if the UCAF is going to stand down."

The salarian councillor Maelon interjected. "That may be the case, however, Rey has presented the UCA and UNSC expressed concern of the conflict and advises that the Turian Hierarchy has gone to the point where they would fully mobilise against the Hierarchy. Even you should know councillor; a mistake could cost more than just the hierarchy its position of power." Maelon said.

"That is simply foolish to believe that the UCA in their space could possibly be as large as our space? As far as they know, they are on our borders, and the war was started by their unprovoked attack on Amphora."

"Which is outside of council control if I may remind you." Tevos added.

"Yes, but that does not excuse the UCAs attack on one of the dig sites under council control."

"They had valid grounds, and you should know councillor, that recent disaster in their space involving highly toxic and bio material had resulted in the destruction of two stations and a ship of council control." Valern reminded.

"There is no definite evidence that was not of human origins, it was in their space and there was little warning either than a beacon to tell people to stay clear." He replied angrily.

"Yes, but the events set in motion by the hierarchy's actions in human space has now left hundreds to thousands dead and many more of your own as well."

"The humans are only violent upstarts; they had no claim as to what happened afterwards as they had already initiated conflict from their attack on Amphora."

"Be that as it may, it now falls to our actions on what we should do with the humans now." Tevos said.

"Well then, you may decide as the representatives, but the hierarchy will continue to attack their space as long as they do not stand down their military." Valern said confidently.

It was at that point a communications arrived from an attendant. "Councillors, I believe that you may want to see this…" The asari said with a glowing Omni tool.

"What is it?" Tevos asked.

"A news report from the UCA space, it says an attack took place against the quarian people who migrated into the UCA region." The attendant replied.

The councillors suddenly paused at what had just been said.

"An attack on the migrant fleet?" Tevos said stunned.

"No, it was an attack on their new home world."

The councillors attention suddenly looked to the nearest holographic projector, the image quickly came to with a masked quarian reporting from the scene of a warzone.

"This is the United Colonial Alliance News Network, I am Reika Nar Rayya of the quarian alliance, and I am reporting from the scene of the large scale attack launched by the turian hierarchy into the UCA and UNSC space. To clarify the scene, the quarian migrant fleet fled in a mass exodus to the UCA space nearly two weeks ago.

The quarian admiralty board had reached an agreement alongside the conclave public government and agreed upon leaving for human space, it had been over three hundred years since the council abandoned the quarian people and now after much desperation for survival, the people find a new home in these peoples space.

The humans had recently been at war with the turian hierarchy, but had accepted to allow the quarian people access to new worlds and a home in their space as long as we respect their people and their traditions.

After a talk between the two governments the admiralty board accepted the agreement and allowed for the humans to extract the fleet to the safety of the Tan system.

Now only a few weeks into colonisation and aid from the humans, the turian hierarchy declared the quarian people negligible and attacked the planet. Now more than 10,000 thousand are dead and many more missing after the large scale assault, though a new power has arrived to aid the alliance."

The camera turned to face a massive alien, its face had four mandibles, but kept them shut, its face looked elongated and shaped, and it was easily larger than any krogan and looked far deadlier. The being spoke in a surprisingly higher voice, most likely a female.

"Thank you Reika, I am commander Unarra of the New Covenant Empire, we had recently come to aid the humans in their plight against the turian hierarchy after being declared enemies for unjust causes."

"What exactly is the relationship between humans and yourselves?" Reika asked.

"We were once a highly more zealous species a year previously, the UCA and UNSC were at war with us, and a war that devastated their species, we had committed an act of genocide in the name of our gods to the humans and nearly drove them to extinction."

"What changed this war?"

"The UNSC revealed the treachery of our own hierarchy and we rebelled and killed those who lied to our people for more than five thousand years. Their deaths served as a reminder to my people as they rebuild the new covenant that our belief cannot fall to corruption."

"And now with everything done, can you say that things have improved between you and the humans?" Reika asked.

"Yes, a new hierarch that had survived the genocide of his people talked to a being known as the ascendant, the great inheritor of our gods. He revealed many truths to the hierarch who saw that the corruption had and needed to be stopped, the prophet of Amity called upon our people to stop the fighting and unify again, under a new order and he brought forwards the news of the great one."

"So, your people have now come to end this war?"

"Yes, the forerunners as we had known our gods as had passed their gene through to the humans as their empire died, and now we serve the only purpose of uniting the humans alongside our people to bring justice to all who are oppressed. We come here to repay a debt that could never be repaid in the amount of blood we spilt, and so we fight. The turians have been repelled and we cleanse any resistance that remains."

The images changed to the covenant vessels burning entire regions, the turian vessels seemed to fire hopelessly at the covenant ships. And the turian shields useless against the covenant plasma batteries, the entire fleet seemed to vanish when the covenant opened fire.

The images of turians being slaughtered by the covenant ground forces seemed to emphasise the sheer power of the alliance and the covenant as both forces battled against the onslaught of the turians.

Marines opened fire with ferocity and the covenant forces began their push through their lines, the images of the turians being taken prisoner and the aftermath of battles from across the quarians new home world.

"How long do you estimate a full end to the fighting?"

"Maybe within the next few days, my brethren are cleansing the region as we speak, it shall not be long till we have secured the region."

"That seems like good news, how is the treatment of prisoners?"

"We honour our enemies as they should be in battle, if they willingly surrender we shall treat all with that dignity."

"That is a good thing to hear, that's all we have for this hour and we shall return shortly. This is Reika Nar Rayya."

The symbol took to the image, and the video feed stopped. The council was nearly speechless or in deep thought, things had simply escalated to a new level. The first of the councillors to break the silence was Valern.

"Maybe we might have underestimated the UCA." He said somewhat dreading.

"Yes and now another race that is almost a hundred times as powerful has joined their war." Maelon said with deft calm.

"Councillor Valern I would suggest a meeting with your hierarchy as soon as possible, the amount of damage caused by the attack on the quarians may catalyst for public protests into the war."

"I see so to now, as I say before the hierarchy is one to not easily give up, and with this current situation it may simply cause them to panic."

"Let us hope they don't then."

XXXXX

(Well that's all I had for today, I need to F***** sleep…)


	25. Chapter 19

CH19

XXXXX

Dancing in the moonlight…

XXXXX

(Here we end the rest of our war, as momentum slows… things here are far more different, but not to worry it'll end soon…)

(I hope you have all enjoyed the story, we're wrapping things up soon, and I need to finish the rewrite. It sucks…)

XXXXX

Reverence (Forerunner world)

Arbiter Vadam watched from as the gunship descended alongside his and the humans, they were under escort by 50 Forerunner Guardian class drones. The silver armoured drones with blue reticules and white glowing shields.

The entire covenant and human fleets had arrived at the Forerunner planet to meet with the great Inheritor, the god like being had not directly communicated with them, but he had sent them the message by a Monitor- Transcendent Vector.

The AI monitor had been the companion of the forerunner for nearly 100,000 plus, ever since he had awoken from his stasis, he had the AI protecting him, and training. The monitor was now waiting for them to meet with them.

The gunship finally made its way to forerunner city, the massive spires of angled buildings and shaped structures stood with perfect stature. The city emanated a gleaming light in its surroundings, beautiful and wonderful.

"This is the power of the gods, entrancing is it not?" Amity asked.

Thel watched and replied. "Yes it is, but I still cannot believe that such a find would have eluded us for millennia when it had sat here before us."

"Be at ease Grand Arbiter, our people have now found our salvation and our ascension; the gods will gift us with the promise of peace and power, reverence and immortality. Though not now, we still have a great duty to perform for the great one."

"I see what task had he placed before us?"

"He had placed a duty that we must perform, though not as of now, I believe he would have us prepare for the future."

XXXXX

Karl and Grey along with the entire group of Spartans had joined together for this critical mission; they were summoned by the forerunner for an unknown purpose. Though there could have been many logical answers seeing as how the Spartans had represented human strength and resilience, against over all and everything that stood in their path.

The pelican landed alongside the covenant phantom, the ships landed quickly and gracefully. The hatch opened on the gunships, the passengers stepped out, their feet striking the compounded floor beneath them, the smooth and mysterious floor looked amazingly clean.

The two forces stood side by side as they began to move into the temple grounds, Amity couldn't help but praise the gods for their divine constructs and efforts. The Spartans weren't as liking to the sounds that the prophet was making but they couldn't bring themselves to stop him.

As they walked through the delta arched hallway, they could see the many markings of the forerunners and their creations, the constant buzz of energy and light, the holographs of symbols and machines.

Dr Valerie Haley and Elizabeth Halsey watched from the front of the group, they themselves were impressed by the geometrical designs and shapes corresponding to the mysterious forerunners. Liara and Mordin along with Rana Thanoptis found themselves embellished as well by the sheer power that surrounded the complex.

"Technology even inconceivable by even prothean race. Such designs, geometrical mappings created through the use of subspace, inter-universal quantum complex reactions and physical accumulation, amazing, no astounding." He said observing the details of the forerunners.

"Yes, this is quite impressive." Liara said mystified.

"Well, we shouldn't keep the Inheritor waiting now should we?" Amity said.

The scientist as they remembered their manners put the ideas back in their heads for now; there was an important meeting that had to be done first and foremost.

They continued their walk to the end of the hallway, the intricate designs became more and more complex and beautiful, immersed within all of these geometrical designs a single being levitating within the main chamber.

His hair was bleached white, eyes glowed with power, an aura seemed to emanate of the entire chamber. The two forces watched with amazement and astonishment, the Spartans was amongst them.

The entity glowed as brightly and as entrancing as anything that anyone had seen, the being glided down with grace, no sound resounded as he landed on his feet, armour that glowed as brightly still, no one was sure if the young looking being was blind. His eyes still glowed whitish blue; there was only a pause until he looked at them.

"Welcome to the sanctum of the light, may faith and will guide you, be resolute in your faith, and I welcome you. I am the Inheritor, Vincent of True Sight."

The prophet was the first to respond. "Greetings to you as well great and enlightened one, I have returned as you said, the armies of the covenant attempt to reform, and I guide them to your will. We now stand by your side as the faithful."

Thel responded as well. "My lord, I am Grand Arbiter Vadam, I have listened to your words, and so I bring justice with our faith, we stand by your side." He said in a revered tone.

"Yes, I know of you arbiter, honour and strength, faith and belief, you fight for your people for the holy truth, and still in your heart from the treachery you remain. I welcome both of you in my home, let the path of true light guide you both, and I forgive the mistakes of all."

His attention turned to the UNSC persons, the Spartans straightened up, in a strong posture they stood, amongst them the SPIIs. Halsey and the others waited and watched with amazement and intrigue, though Vincent the Inheritor turned his attention to one person in particular of the Spartans.

"Grey, once again we meet, though not within a fight."

"Yes, it is finally nice to meet you when your life isn't under threat."

"How have you been?"

"Not bad, the war going on hasn't been kind upon the young, many have died and we're still fighting, the war will soon reach its end, and I hope that you might join us at the meeting with the council."

"Ah, I remember them, there is little that I do not know, and they are something I understand so easily, the turians will not break yet. Though you will prevail, now I must attend to my other guests."

With a nod the forerunner turned his sights upon Fred. "Leader of soldiers, leader of men, guidance comes from your judgement and wisdom and skill. Guide your brethren and continue the fight, for there shall be seven at the beginning and only seven at the end." His words resounded through them all.

Fred wasn't sure what to make of such a prophecy; he simply stood there amazed and confused. The next person in line was Linda, he stood and faced her.

"May your sight, be true and be your hunt end well, you are the pathfinder, there is no little feat, and no scale as great. You shall find any and all, look inside yourself and you shall find your strength."

He walked on leaving another Spartan in confusion. He continued to walk until he came to Kelly.

"Your faith races as fast as your heart does, there is nothing that may stop you, when threatened, you rush to your enemy. You move faster than the wind and there are few that may ever reach you, but never catch you."

He walked over to where Halsey and the scientists were, walking over, he faced Halsey.

"You, the one who creates and sacrifices, have given your children cause, as their mother and not only their overseer. But their guardian, you have done what many have yet to accomplish, and you have sacrificed much of your morals to reach the end. I know of what must be done, the gods gave me the same view the aspect of all life.

As the concealment of these warriors and their creation you abided to sacrifice their innocence as children and through them you forged the greatest of weapons. And yet still they live, to protect as they were created to, they live for all, to survive is their key, and their survival depended upon you.

I see that there is still one, the last of all the greatest, he watches with a cold stare, near the edge of the abyss, he still lives. Wait for him, upon the last run, for he shall return. There is still another legend, not one born of the augmentation, but one born of flesh, she comes from one and only one. For she shall guide the fate of humanity in its coming war, though not now…"

His attention turned away from Halsey, she felt somewhat surprised and scared, her mind had always attained logic, but what the Inheritor had said seemed different, there was still one more yet to come…

Vincent came over to Liara, his eyes focused upon her blue forehead.

"Young as you are, you have a great journey ahead, the way of war, the path of loneliness, and then the path of love, to the day of reverence. You are beautiful in mind and soul, do not let the loneliness of what you wish to accomplish ever halt your good spirit. The path of the enlightened is only gained through patience and resolution, never forget."

Liara was intrigued at the words given to her, they seemed almost as if listening to a good friend someone warm, caring…

He walked over to the professor. "You are energetic." He stated.

He walked off leaving everyone surprised at this; he walked to the next person. Rana had been hoping there might have been something she could wait for.

"There is much to learn on the path to a better future, you have much to live for, and so little time. Hazards approach at every angle and at every turn, do not allow yourself to be fooled by others and keep vigilant in your mind. There is someone else who will be waiting for you at the end of the path."

The asari seemed interested in the words he spoke, but she decided not to ask.

He walked to the steps of his atrium once more.

"You all know something others do not, I shall join you in the talks with the council soon, the covenant has yet to fully assemble and there is still much we need to prepare for. I shall meet with you here once more tomorrow, the Spartan V shall hold the defensive positions for Nova Stratus, there is little to worry about today. You are free to explore my world, but please I advise you speak to my overseer for any questions." He said gesturing to the sudden appearance of the Monitor unit.

"I am Transcendent Vector, guardian of this facility, I welcome you all here." He said courteously.

They all left the forerunner citadel; Vincent knew of the coming events the ones he would fear that might decide the fate of all.

XXXXX

11/3/2554

Nearly three weeks later an asari republic vessel arrived into UCAF space, a white flag treaty is held at the N.1 parallel, asari begin a communication between the council and humanity.

12/3/2554

UNSC and UCAF begin talks with representatives, the asari express concern of the conflict and ask for a given treaty as casualties heavily mount on the turian side.

The hierarchy casualties stand at 275,000 - 300,000

The human casualties stand at 85,000

13/3/2554

UNSC and UEG arrive with delegates to represent the UNSC in total with remaining colonies

Talks become heated with the turian hierarchy as talks for disarmament fail.

Turian hierarchy agrees to withdrawal as soon as the UNSC and UCAF disarm majority of weapons and allow for council to review over weaponry

The council also puts forwards talks to the New Covenant Empire; talks are stalled as the turians attempted an attack in the Pyros Region

15/3/2554

Talks end with only a word of warning, commander of the Spartan IVI (151st) asks that no turian vessel is ever to be seen in the next 3 months or UCA forces will repulse and act accordingly.

The numbers of troops within UCAF regions are revealed at nearly 40 million combat capable with an auxiliary of 210 million.

Turian forces are held in disbelief and consider the UCAF warning as false, though not as pleased; the turians begrudgingly adhere to the warning given.

21/3/2554

Reconstruction of the city of New Faith is rebuilt; the quarian people are advocated for full citizenship and integration into the UCA.

The new covenant begin talks with the Inheritor known as Ascendant, the talks begin a change with the war as the Ascendant calls for peace, the talks are mixed as there are many areas to cover and much to know.

25/3/2554

Treatment of the quarian immune system is completed, the gene base for the quarians are unlocked by Dr Valerie Haley and her research team.

Turian forces break treaty…

1/4/2554

Conflict once again arises in the UCA space, the UNSC supports the UCA to push turian forces back to Sigma Relay

Commando units stranded in the Choral system finally overpower turian forces and destroy critical outposts and bases. They also discover a plot of bio weapons and experiments, T1 division is sent as a response to destroy locations.

5/4/2554

UCAF begins a full scale invasion to the other side of the Sigma relay, war hits the planet of Amphora, and supply to remaining turian forces is cut.

11/4/2554

Amphora as the critical point of refuelling and restocking within the segment of space is the main location of all fuel depots and supply, without the planet the turian forces become unable to attack Sigma and retake the relay.

The captive world is constantly attacked by the turians for the remainder of the war…

The GUARDIAN program also took place on Amphora as it was in council space, ships disguised as simple freighters and cargo transports managed to sneak through the turian defences to locate their targets.

11/7/2554

Turians begin recall of troops from the Nova Stratus front; the war had cost them over 350,000 in casualties with another 150,000 POW

Human casualties at this point reach 111,000 with 35,000 POW

15/11/2554

Celebrations begin for the founder's day of the people of Nova Stratus, though not as festive with the war, they change their attitudes to welcome their new citizens into their interstellar community.

The quarian people enter the Nova Stratus community with their founding alongside the populations celebrations. There are nearly 19.5million quarians that have become part of the community and highly accepted by the people.

Anomia- Caldera City- City Park 15/11/2554

Duran watched the night skies, empty as usual, the time went by the last few months, quicker than he could have ever imagined, and the people of Nova Stratus were celebrating their founder's day. It had begun only a few moments ago.

"So enjoying the sight's I see?" A voice said from behind.

A woman dressed in a fine set of clothes, nothing fancy, a simple parka and a pair of regal jeans; she had piercing blue eyes and a fiery red coloured hair.

"Tanya, when did you get that new shell?" He asked.

"I always had this one stored aboard the Aspire, I just never bothered with it, and besides you know how I feel about having to plug my neural cortex into the system drives, that old piece of junk hurts." She replied.

"I'm probably guessing this is just for founder's day?" He asked.

"Yeah I guess it is, besides you know that this place was also when I met Grey and Thom, though Thom is MIA, he still remembered to meet me here before then." She said in a nostalgic tone.

"Huh, surprisingly I never thought of you as the one to keep memories, I thought that doing so would only increase higher chances of rampancy?"

"Not in the MKIIV shells, we never go to that point due to our more advanced core properties, and also processors had to be adjusted specifically to adapt to all the different types of data we process, I had my shell adjusted by the Huragok some years ago." Tanya replied.

"Good to hear, so where are the other?"

"Oh they're on their way, I hear that Valerie and Halsey finished their talks with the Spartans, there's also a few interesting couples." She said with a grin.

Then as if on cue a group appeared at the private area of the park, the mass of dressed military jackets and black coloured parkas and as well as light skin titanium armour that many of the Spartans wore. Halsey was talking to Fred and Linda, and Grey was with Valerie, Valerie who was holding his arm…

The Spartans had all gathered at the park area, Grey knew that he was supposed to be with the 151st company right now, but they had leave in the city. Karl was also here and many of the command Spartans along with their subordinates.

"Ready?" He asked.

"You know it."

Grey reached into a bag on the ground and set up a tripod, he then lifted out an old M40 grenade launcher and loaded a round into it.

The whole world timed their shots…

3

2

1

…

"BOOM"

A score of thousands of shells lit the skies up, as the propelled themselves to the reaches of the heavens, they detonated in a flurry of lights and sounds.

All over Nova Stratus space, every world was alight; the literal downpour of lights followed in their wake, and the heavens began to cry out once more. The night of star fall, the night of solace began.

And soon ended…

XXXXX

UCAF HIGH COM

"So it is agreed then? The main fleets are to arrive at the citadel and confront the council?" A voice asked.

"Yes, this is the only way to ensure that no mistakes are made again, those fools let the hierarchy do what they wish, so it's time we showed them otherwise."

A murmur of agreement followed, and soon an image of the citadel appeared.

"We will deploy the special operation branch to confront the council in one week, this is now operation: REVELATION."

XXXXXX

(That's all folks; we'll be back sooner or later…)

We're going to go talk to the council!


	26. Chapter 20

CH20

XXXXX

(Sorry to all of my readers for this part of the story, but we might have a problem, in my rewrite I might have forgotten some details, I will be doing over those errors as soon as I can finish up, once I've completed this story as I shall repeat I'll rewrite the entire thing.)

BTW: What the heck is My Lazy Sundays?

XXXXX

Dead man walking… dead man moon walking… ?

XXXXX

24/12/2554

One month had passed since the turian hierarchy broke the truce and attacked the colonies once more; the UCAF and UNSC begin operation: Revelation. The massive operation required a major strike force to confront the council forces; UCA troops and military begin final preparations on Christmas Eve.

The UCA/UEG begin celebrating for Christmas, the UCAF sends their Christmas gifts to the other side by a cargo freighter. The word of Christmas spreads to the galaxy: "Peace to all sentient beings."

The council has now idea how to react, and simply watched with interest at the occurrence.

XXXXX

Operation begins…

The Few and None along with the 750 ships formed at the designated staging ground, the Aspire stood out alongside the many cruisers and frigates as well as hundreds of cruisers and command ships and carriers.

The covenant had also joined in the formation, their 250 ships of their major fleet had joined the confrontation, the prophet of Amity and the arbiter had taken their largest and most powerful cruisers and flagships to add firepower.

The quarians were adding their own numbers only as a sign of support and alliance, they had lent them their new ships produced at the new Adriatic Star Port, the massive station had made the quarians capable of equalling the UNSC in ship terms, but their kinetic shields had been added to aid.

But amongst the coalition of species a single ship stood out amongst them all, a 75km ship shaped in a massive sword with a glowing hexagonal core of energy stood amongst the fleet. The ship was patterned with glowing lines and energy; it had the power that could easily annihilate over 100,000 ships with its massive tans-light beam.

This was the flagship of Vincent, the inheritor had activated a massive vessel stored away, the ship had then awoken from its 100,000 years of slumber, and now it was on their side. The ship glowed white with energy and seemed to illuminate the surrounding area. If anyone was looking close enough there were a literal wave of millions of sentinel guardians and combat drones.

Duran could see from his bridge that the massive vessel dwarfed the entire region; there had never been such a massive vessel anywhere in the entire of UNSC or Covenant space. He walked about looking at the command readouts, the fleet had been preparing to move, the final confrontation was ready, they needed to end the threat posed by the Turians.

Duran watched as the newly appointed admiral James Vance took control of the fleet, his refitted Halcyon class cruiser, the ship had been heavily adjusted at the New Adriatic Star port, and the old cruiser had been adjusted with a new MAC and ablative armour and shields.

Duran always wondered if James would have ever reached the rank, now his question was answered, he was glad that Vance had taken to the position; the fleet had become as confident against their foe as they knew that they had the superiority against them.

The commands soon came through, and the fleet knew what had to be done, from their staging position a final message on their briefing came through.

"All ships, this is Admiral James Vance, this is our day, the day that both humanity and the covenant join together, we shall confront this power called the citadel council into realising the fault of the turian hierarchy as they attack needlessly into our space without any further provocation.

Today the galaxy will hear our voices, the voice of the young and weary and the billions behind that voice, the galaxy shall hear us all as we step forwards. Let the operation commence."

The com channels opened again, this time it was the inheritor. "I shall transport the entire fleet to the location, please brace yourselves, none had yet to reach my power and as such you should hold as carefully… now I begin." He finished.

The entire crew of all the ships braced as carefully as they could, the mass of ships suddenly vanished out of existence as they entered slip-space.

XXXXX

Citadel: Serpent Nebula

24/12/2554

The council had been continuing to deal with the war, the council species were in a frenzy as the reports from Amphora continued, the turians loss at the planet and the loss of one of the relay's had managed to call in their status.

Many other species had been calling for them to be removed from the war, the situation had grown out of hand as the humans were posing a major threat to the galaxy, the situation was grim enough that there many mercenaries had been hired to protect worlds from the said threat, but the humans had not left Amphora since capturing it.

"Has the hierarchy considered what the humans offered or are they still planning to betray them again?" Maelon asked.

"That was a decision that was not decided by me but the hierarchy, there was little option in their belief, a disgrace such as this would only reinforce the terminus systems that we had softened in our ability to defend ourselves." He replied defensively.

"That councillor Valern is unacceptable, the conflict has cost the hierarchy many casualties, and we doubt that the hierarchy could even continue their war, the UCAF had annihilated the last three fleets and people are wondering when the conflict will end, if pride is what it will take then it will be all of our deaths." Tevos said objectively.

"I can see that there is little to debate here; I have called the same response to the continued war, though I have little say now, the hierarchy refuses unless it finds itself no other choice."

There was a deafening pause, they had all stopped their argument, and it had been the same as it began since last time. Then as they were about to continue their talks a C-sec officer ran into the council chambers.

"Councillors, something has happened." She said out of breath.

"What has occurred officer?"

"The humans have arrived! They also have brought a massive ship, I can't even begin to explain it councillors." The asari officer explained.

The councillors had been frozen to their spot, they were just shocked, the councillors turned to the projector as the security system was also accessible for them, they activated the terminal and soon an image of the fleet appeared, it didn't even fit on the screen.

"By the Goddess…"

There was a fleet that dwarfed the entire council fleet sat in the space that had been empty only minutes ago, and now there were nearly 750 on the security surveillance. The massive fleet had ships that were larger than entire lengths of the entire citadel arms and the sheer force that they seemed to pack.

Though that was not the very thing that struck the greatest amount of fear, the largest vessel they had ever seen was sitting in the middle, it was shaped like a massive triangular shaped sword and had a massive ring that ran at the back that rotated, its core was a blinding light of energy, but they could distinguish that it might have been the engines or the main weapon.

They stood with their mouths nearly agape as they watched the fleet take formation, the ships from their scanners could tell were nearly over all 1-2+km long or even larger, the council or any galactic power would tremble to its foundations against these vessels.

And then suddenly the entire image was changed from the fleet to a strange loading screen, the UCAF had hacked the network and was inside their systems. The image quickly appeared with the emblem of the UCA and soon an image of a human appeared.

"This is Admiral James Vance of the UCAF and joint forces…"

XXXXX

Aboard the Few and None, Vance watched as the entire region of space came into focus in moments, the fleet had succeeded in use of the Inheritor's ability to utilise forerunner technology, Vance was sure that this feat would frighten the council into finally acting. He stood to then address the citadel.

"This is Admiral James Vance of the UCAF and joint forces of the UNSC and the New Covenant forces, I am here as the main representative of humanity which is heavily engaged in conflict with the turian hierarchy, I come now as a representative to the council to request a peaceful resolution to our conflict." He stated.

The message transmitted and he stood back and waited for the council to respond, he didn't need to even wait, the com channel opened up in a matter of moments in response to the joint fleet. An image of an asari appeared in the screen suddenly, her face with distinct markings, next to her were the other council members, a turian and a salarian.

"Greetings Admiral, I am councillor Tevos of the asari republic and these are my colleagues; councillor Maelon of the salarian coalition and Valern of the turian hierarchy." She gestured to the other council members.

The council members had looked at the admiral with respect, intrigue, and disgust, he didn't mind the turian and focused upon the necessary task of aligning the UCAs request to the council and making sure that the war ended for good.

"Esteemed councillors, I am here as a representative to the UCA, UNSC, UEG, New Covenant, and the quarian alliance, along with very important guest who has arrived with us. We are here to ask you as the council to intervene in the conflict that had occurred in our space by the turian hierarchy's attempt at invasion of our space and aggression." Vance stated neutrally.

The turian suddenly looked far angrier than a few moments before, his eyes bored into the admiral, but Vance ignore it, he simply waited for the response, he watched as the council spoke amongst each other for a few moments.

"Yes, we have noticed the conflict and were discussing a means to end the conflict as soon as possible, when do you feel that talks should begin Admiral?"

"As soon as possible, I should say, though a trade of history would be a better means of initiating our talks before a formal introduction."

"Very well, we will allow for you to access some of our history and vice versa. We shall stand down the fleet for the time being, it would be in our best interest that your fleet takes to an equally less hostile stance, before we begin our talks, the inhabitants of the citadel would feel less intimidated."

"Very well, I shall advise my allies, we shall meet with you when we are ready councillors." Vance said respectfully.

XXXXX

The Aspire drifted lazily to the side of the Few and None, the small vessel was easily dwarfed by 1/3rd the size of the cruiser, but only in length rather than breadth or height, the two ships joined in a bridging section and allowed for the captain to meet with the admiral.

Vance had called an immediate meeting for the remaining high ranked officers and the UNSC forces along with the quarians who were to be represented by a young admiral named Raan, the UEG was to speak to the council via a sub-space com seeing as they were over 575 light years from earth. The Covenant was to be represented by Thel, Rtas, Amity and representatives of the covenant species.

However Vincent was only to appear to the council when the public debate began, as that was a critical point in the debate between the humans and their allies to the council. The people would be watching and he would only appear at the most valuable of times.

"So, that's all we need, just you me, Arbiter Vadam, and all the others, who'll be in charge of security for each of the delegates?" Duran inquired.

"We select our own personal aides with us for this meeting of the council, which is why all the main classes of Spartans had been selected for this, Blue team along with Katana and Sabre and Grey with the 151st are all that we need, the reason is because we have Halsey and Valerie with their research and scientific teams to check in that they aren't dead." James explained.

"Okay then, that makes sense, when do we depart?" Duran asked.

"We leave now." He said picking up his M6 modified handgun.

X-X-X-X-X-X

It took only minutes as the pelicans were loaded, the mass of Spartans could have only been selected for the most lethal mission that was absolutely necessary, but this day was different, Blue team had suited into their new Crusader class armour MKV and had been prepped for a security mission for their delegates and guests.

Fred watched as the newly formed Sabre stood next to Blue team, he was shocked when only a few days ago Grey team – (SPII) arrived aboard a UNSC cruiser; they were behind enemy lines up until a year ago when the covenant started to fight against each other. Fred though was happy to see familiar faces of the old Grey team, though he hadn't had much time to catch up.

Fred was now here in the main hold of a pelican assigned to protect the scientists with Halsey included, he was glad to know that Halsey was healthy and looking well for a woman nearly as old as she was. She was standing next to one of her new apprentices, Liara was beginning to see why the Spartans meant so much and she had dedicated herself in aiding the Spartans in their need to protect all life from all sorts of danger.

She though felt close to the Spartans like Halsey even though not knowing much about them, she felt as though they were an awesome power. Mordin however was different more interested in the work that Halsey had set him to, he was great at his work almost immediately he had set himself to working on preparing a cure for the salarian aging issues, he himself now could live to 75.

Things had been very interesting and vibrant, the Spartan II/III were getting used to the V and IV, though they had never seen as many of the IV Spartans. It had been revealed by Karl one of the Spartan IV washouts that many of the original IVs were all KIA and were all listed as MIA, he said that they followed traditions as best they could.

Fred and Blue team stood at attention as they arrived at the landing pad of the citadel, the pad was surprisingly smaller than what they would have imagined, but that might have been due to how the UNSC and UCAF actually build their drop-ships or shuttles.

The pelican made its landing on the small platform and allowed the Spartans along with their charge step off. Walking down from there they found themselves suddenly greeted by dozens of guards, the turians as they could see amongst them looked nervously at the Spartans, they had heard from the front line conflict that the massive humans called Spartans had ripped through entire lines without pause.

One turian remaining vigilant walked over from the squad and said. "We are your escorts for the Citadel, we just need to inform you about weaponry and where and when not to use them, the citadel has strict guidelines and as you are military you do have that right for weaponry, however a short scan is required." He said carefully.

The Spartans looked at him for a glaring moment, and then they simply let the turian know form a gesture to quickly proceed before they change their minds. The turians scrambled over and did just quick scans before allowing them to pass through.

The Blue team also noticed the others in the same situation as all teams and their delegates were fully scanned and then allowed through to the other side, the quarians were the only ones that seemed to take the longest. The covenant however was not as easy to scan though, the sensors kept bouncing off the new armour the arbiter had received from the forerunner as a gift, and he would never remove it while these turians were there.

After an uneventful scan the groups of representatives and delegates made their way to the presidium, many of them were not equally surprised or amazed at the pristine condition of the presidium; Anomia's gardens had plenty of sights to the UCAF.

To the covenant, their arrival on the Forerunner home world was far more interesting than looking at the gardens here; there was little of interest to them. Arbiter Vadam was intrigued by why the council went to such an extent to simply wander them about rather than simply face them as soon as they could.

The quarians had ever felt the presence of the turians glares of resentment to them, their betrayal was a fabrication, but many of the galactic citizens believed the falsification of the truth, their withdrawal from council space was to save themselves from utter annihilation. However the other species would have none of their pleadings.

The joint species headed to the main tower after a brief trip through the presidium, they headed up to the main council tower. The short walk through the pathways around the presidium and they soon found themselves at the base, the groups had to go one by one as the lift was not as large, or as fast.

James Vance and Duran waited for the slow trip of the lift to end soon, the wait was rather displeasing and many of them thought that this was petty revenge by the council to annoy them before even meeting.

After their arduous travel inside the very slow lift, they arrived inside the tower, once the doors opened they exited into the open chambers, the area was low lit and it seemed as though lighting wasn't as good as they had to wince a bit before adjusting well.

As the groups walked through the council chambers they noted all the interesting designs of the chambers themselves, they had been positioned in a way that would allow them to defend against any attack or threat. Duran could see that there was little the stairs would do if the UNSC or UCA or any of them would attack or raid the chambers.

The covenant members that had come along with the prophet stood ready to aid in the talks, the grunts had been having their first taste of liberty and had been enjoying their new found freedom from the years of oppression by their masters.

Kig-yar or Jackals had their representatives from their far away home world arrive to add to the talks by offering trade and business, but also their borders.

The elites and the brutes, the brutes being as careful as they could in not enraging the forerunner entity they now served, reserved themselves for talks. Elites as they had always done, remained ever vigilant against any threat, they needed to make sure that nothing went wrong, especially with the turians and the council, but mainly for the inheritor.

As they finally went up the final flight of stairs they arrived at the main dais of the chambers, the council seated on the other side and the bridge that sat in the middle of the open circle. James and the other human reps stood at the sides of the chamber as the others filed into the dais.

It took a full 5 minutes before everyone was ready for the talks. The guards and the personal escorts had to be left in the outside of the main dais as an agreement made for the UCA and the others to ensure that no foul play was to ever occur.

The council after seeing that everyone was as in place started the talks by greeting the main representatives. The UCA, UNSC, New Covenant, Quarian alliance had all stood at the bridge with only Vance standing on the bridge that faced the council.

"Greetings to all of you, we hope you enjoyed the sights while you were here Admiral." Tevos started.

"Yes, it was interesting to say the least, shall we begin?" He asked.

With a nod the asari addressed the races. "This meeting of the council is now in session, the UCA has called for an immediate end of the conflict within their space against the turian hierarchy, and we have reviewed over the situation and agree that the conflict has gone on long enough. However the turian hierarchy has called in for the issue at hand about the UCA being uncompliant to the council laws of use of mass relays."

Vance replied to the charge. "How were we to have known of council laws? We were never in your space until just a year ago, and that was only within the interest of my people with a highly dangerous course of events."

"Which is why you attacked a council dig site and taken a high prized piece of technology?" Valern said venomously.

"No to stop you from accidently destroying yourselves, what you dug up was an ancient forerunner technology, not your protheans. That core that you recovered was a quantum slip-space core, one thing that might have obliterated your entire citadel, which is why we took it from you; you weren't allowed to use it."

Maelon decided to change the subject. "Why had we been unable to access such technology if you had been?"

"Because those ancients that had existed gifted humanity with its gene, and as such we were to inherit their creations, you however would have never figured it out unless you were like the covenant in the past."

"Is there any proof that you are these inheritors of these beings? Or is it all just a fabrication?" Valern asked seething.

Arbiter Vadam looked as though he could knock the stuffing out of the councillor and Amity didn't even need a glance to know he was about to say something about heresy or blasphemy against the great one.

Mordin came to the rescue along with Halsey and the science team. "We do have proof of the human's claims councillors." Liara said for the team.

"Then please enlighten us to their inheritance." Valern sarcastically said.

The other councillors were also not looking to well at the turian; his arrogance to the humans was unbecoming of the right to even hold his position.

Mordin started his discovery off, he had done some research with Halsey who had revealed much about the Spartan and human DNA compared to Forerunner. "Very well, better to explain in simpler terms, over time in research for humans I had discovered that many of their base line comparison DNA structure had been slightly altered to the normal human DNA. Only difference was this DNA could only be found in Spartan candidates and unique persons, rare, the humans have greater gene pool and far advanced forms to begin full undertaking of explanation. Humans are Forerunner, and I have proof."

He opened up an image file of Forerunner and Human DNA and showed what matched that allowed humans and forerunners to be on similar footing in speaking of traits.

The council was intrigued by the find, but didn't get any longer than some moments before the image disappeared.

"Apologies, human DNA is not allowed for viewing, UCA frowns upon showing too much at one point in time, and Covenant is highly zealous of secrets."

The council went back to a passive stature, though Valern was still passive-aggressive.

"As Professor Solus had partially explained we are the Forerunner's reclaimers, though only to an extent, the Forerunners had passed their legacy unto us and us alone, which is why you were unable to use any of the technology that was in the ancient facility."

"So we see. I believe we are going a bit off the topic as to your situation as neighbouring power to our own. It is in the interest of us about your inherent powers as humans but we have far greater concerns."

"Yes, I did notice that, what might you ask about our space?" Vance asked.

"We would like to confirm that human space is far greater than our own?"

"Yes, but we recently were in conflict with the covenant, their war with us had heavily depleted our military and population, we're barely maintaining what we have. And UCA space is vastly different as we had also suffered from the conflict, we are only at 75% of our ability for production and many of my fellow colonists agree. We lost our government the day our worlds were attack so we had little choice but to maintain a post military society in order to maintain our population."

"Which is why you're military is so large?" Valern said.

"Yes, our population is heavily based in partial military service, all those who are combative capable were mobilised to fight the war, and when you attacked our colonies we did so again, just with far seasoned soldiers." Vance replied.

"So you have appealed to us as a power that wishes to join the council due to your current status?" Maelon asked.

"No, we as a matter of fact wished to declare our independent right of power in the galaxy and we wish to remain neutral in the galaxy, we only want to be left alone in our pocket of space, there is little that you could ever offer us, either than that neutrality." He replied.

Valern and the others were quite surprised at this outcome, the humans and their all powerful allies along with the quarians would become a super power that they would never equal, but a neutral one that would not side with the council might change to balance in the galaxy completely.

"But why turn down such an opportunity, surely arriving here to appeal to us would have at least considered joining the council species."

"No, for many reasons, we don't wish to join your space, we would not be speaking any further than that for now, we only came here to ask for the war to end."

Arbiter added. "And also to ask for the turian hierarchy to compensate for the damage caused in their campaign in Nova Stratus."

The air suddenly turned cold, the turian councillor was nearly in fumes with what was happening.

"What? Pay for the damage caused by your own fault? We would never stand to low as for you mistake for arriving within our space and attacking one of our dig sites for your peoples gain."

"We made no error in judgement councillor; we simply defended you from making a terrible mistake, unless you actually wanted the infection of before to have been even worse, if I remember we made sure that those rescued managed to tell their story about what had occurred."

"Yes, well people started to resent us a bit further human, though we told the public…"

"They didn't believe you and then they simply abandoned you all together about the infection?"

Things weren't going to improve for a while…

XXXXX

(PART 2) Is later… I am really tired people, I will get to work on that soon, and also the next set of events might be more political and interesting…

I shall see what I can do

BTW: I need to rewrite ASAP, I might have made a few mistakes.


	27. Chapter 21

CH21

(This is exactly 21 pages long.)

XXXXX

The end and the beginning…

Vance held his breath, he watched as the UCA and UNSC representatives and ambassadors talked and argued critical points of the war and who was to compensate for the losses, reparations of the UCA and UNSC was not likely seeing as the events of the war was actually declared as a non-aggression act.

The UCA representatives in the meeting were placing the pressure on the council, even though the turian hierarchy has declared an immediate cease fire, they were not accepting of the UNSC and the other species.

There was also a varying issue, the UCA reps were young, very young, many had been selected from the best and brightest, ever since the covenant wiped out the majority government during the war, the UCA had to rely on a militaristic society completely capable of defending itself. Though it was ruled by democratic heads, the entire system was pro military and was comprised mostly of soldiers and military commanders mixed with whatever remained of political leaders on planets.

Right about now, the UCA Major Kyle Thurston was in a heated debate on UCAF military industrial production, though it had been almost a year, the UCA had still a major industrial effort in manufacturing of weapons.

The UCA had now been upgrading weaponry almost constantly, and once the USRF had capable means of producing mass accelerator weaponry, the turian hierarchy had almost been desperate in debating to the USR to reduce manufacturing before they were allowed to consider neutrality.

"We have every right as a sentient species to protect our homes councillor, I and the ICA union development and production independence oppose your sanction of demilitarisation, our production had only recently reach mass accelerator weaponry and has been quickly adapting."

"Which is why you are to demilitarise, your people are producing advanced weaponry far too quickly, and at a rate the council cannot even begin to monitor."

"Which is specifically why we sanctioned for a neutral policy of independence, which I might add you are opposing, councillor." He argued.

"Gentlemen, please show restraint in the council chamber." Tevos said.

The two returned to a neutral stance, though the turian was still refusing to accept that the UCA or their pro-military society and their policy.

Tevos decided to deliberate on the reason of armament. "Major Kyle, we see that the UCA wishes to protect itself, however there is a highly unlikely chance that another conflict is bound to occur, what we ask is simply to reduce any chance of military infringement in the traverse, seeing as your race is now progressing to it."

Kyle thought it through but still didn't want to give the UCAF a bad name, these aliens would see the UCAF become a shell of itself, but he and the other members of the union weren't going to let that happen, not yet.

"Councillor, my people suffered a war that had slaughtered billions, we were nearly exterminated, and from what I have seen, the reason we do not wish to reduce production is our condition, other species are bound to conflict with us whether we like it or not. Which I raise the point, we will not and shall not reduce a majority of our military production of materials and machinery."

There was a murmur from the stands, hundreds of other beings had entered the chamber in order to learn of the UCA and the UNSC, the UNSC was here as a backer, and with their situation in Sol the UNSC was reliant heavily in the UCAF and their New Covenant allies.

The aliens that were standing at the balconies watched with interest and concern, there was much debate in the last 2 days and it had only increased with tension at every turn when the UCAF and UNSC were asked to demilitarise from production.

"Major, as you represent the UCAF, do you truly expect that the human race could possibly be underprepared to deal with the greater galaxy?" The salarian Maelon said.

"No, and yes, this is something we had not entirely foreseen, though we estimate that the colonies would be far more vulnerable if the UCA was to disband a majority of its security and defensive capabilities if we were to adhere to your conditions, and I do not want my people under constant danger of slavers and pirates that roam freely as they do."

"But there is no major threat posed, unless the whole terminus systems were to attack, you and your people have a record for being resilient in the face of untold odds."

"That would be due to our Spartans councillors, and you have already been told by them, their numbers are limited, and they are solely made for absolute warfare."

Valern took to the offensive again. "That in case is another point of interest in our position Major, the Spartan program or by what you call the venerators are by the definition of the violation of human rights, those children that you and your fellow soldiers-."

"-is not of your concern councillor, seeing that I am a Spartan myself." He said gesturing to the venerator symbol of the hawk and the two katana blades.

The council had not entirely encountered many of these Spartan commanders, but from field reports of the turian troops, these commanders were terrifying in every way, they led strike teams into near suicidal missions and devastated major facilities on their own. To be in the presence of just of one of these commanders was standing in the face of death.

"Pardon my explicit behaviour councillors, but I repeat myself, the UCAF shall not and will not reduce majority of its industrial production of weaponry, the Spartan project is in the area of Dr Halsey and Valerie Haley." He explained.

"We hope that the UCAF is considering disbanding its military production at least. We now move to our next topic of today, the Spartan program by the ONI and the UCAF and UNSC." Tevos announced.

Valerie and Halsey along with the science team were to bring their case to point of the council and to the eyes of the public, the UCAF Spartan commanders were chosen to represent the various forces of these soldiers. While the Spartan IIs and IIIs were to be represented by Fred, Grey and his fellow Spartans were to take their positions.

Liara and Mordin along with Rana, they made themselves in a back arch behind the Spartans, with the exception of Valerie and Halsey standing next to Fred and Grey. Halsey was dressed in a black skirt with a grey shirt and a plain lab coat. Valerie was dressed in a black suit with her glasses on, she looked more like a field operative rather than a scientist, but that was part of her work.

"Dr Halsey and Valerie, you and your teams are part of the Spartan project, we had discussed previously about your involvement in the Spartan program, though we had not been able to discuss its purpose as of now." Maelon said.

Valerie addressed the council. "Well councillor, seeing as you have had a previous statement and introduction into our affairs, it would be logical to explain what you should hear from us.

Approximately 55 years ago, the UCA began the N7 project, though the program was only to enhance the physical and slight mental effects of the body. There were unforseen attributes to what occurred, in the process of creating these necessary cells for use, the UCAF decided to test this unique discovery and led to mandatory application of this genetic discovery in many births, this allowed our population to be genetically enhanced even without the need of expensive costs or dangers, a natural progress that was widely accepted.

This discovery led us also to learn of the unique abilities of some of our people, once after we discovered this means of adapting; we started rapid expansion of our abilities. The majority of our people managed to adapt to this change. When we completed our adaptations we soon began to expand widely.

The UNSC only made contact 50 years ago when a random jump caused a scout ship to enter UCA space, the ICA as the independent party attempted to communicate, but the UCA was not as welcoming to allowing the UNSC access to our technology.

But we didn't possess the military power the UNSC did, and when we began to advance militaristically it took us into a new stage. The UNSC gave us the blueprints for their Spartan program and asked us to provide the means to advance their designs, which is why they sent me. I as in Valerie Haley here is not a normal human; I am an advanced clone, or more specific a clone of Dr Halsey."

The council looked in surprise; the humans had clones in their society? The others in the chamber were also surprised, with the exception of Halsey herself, she had suspected something like that had occurred some years ago, but she wasn't sure when it had occurred.

"A shock I know, there was much confusion with our own scientists, but to simply elaborate, the ONI had ordered her creation using our advanced cloning technology, and we simply adapted what we had to create Halsey to me. It was not a small feat, as we had to adapt many neurological and technological functions to create an alternate version of another being, and so I adapted what I knew from my predecessor."

Valern was surer than ever the extent of the UCA and its advanced capabilities.

"Are you telling us, this program was created by you as a scientist clone, was that even legal?" Valern asked.

"Of course not but the UCA had to keep the program under heavy wraps to ensure that no one was ever to know about its creation, I can't even disclose when I was born, or conceived. The only reason we allow you to know about the Spartan program is only because of the public knowledge, the UCA openly recruits for volunteers and those who were necessary to allow themselves into the Spartan ranks.

The program is no longer a secret councillors, and the only secrets are those to specific persons, we'd never let people know about those kinds of secrets. But the program in general is allowed only for those who can make it. And as such you have seen the results of that program, Grey and all the other companies have since expanded.

We have the initiative councillors, we have the very sword, and it's pointed at whoever threatens humanity. The UCA had cost your troops in numbers, but the Spartans have proven that even the turians cannot simply win against a race that knows absolute war."

She said gravely.

"Is that a threat professor?" Valern asked.

"No what I said was a warning. And our only one, the UCA is only allowing you to understand this, there is not just one Spartan company and we have long since advanced from our 450 Spartan IV and we now have over 30,000 Spartan V, and those numbers are expected to expand over a very short period of time, we have estimated statistically another 170,000 and even more are to join these ranks in the next half a century." She explained.

The councillors along with a number of their military commanders and advisors had frozen on the spot; the turians visibly flinched at the actual numbers. Most of them had encountered one force of Spartan or another force of them, the sheer destruction of their armies and troops had been enough to dispel any image of victory from their minds.

"Well I hope you understand the UCA is simply trying to defend itself from all and any threats in the galaxy, we never know what might be out in the galaxy. And the sheer armaments that we possess might be far difficult for you to even begin to understand, we have been variably adaptive in our ability to counter many threats." Haley explained.

"Is the armed forces that you possess even necessary? We have seen the effects of your weaponry and we do believe that you possess a substantial amount of armaments, if not far too great." Valern expressed concerned.

"That is in the hierarchy's opinion, and we rather not be intimidated by a power that believes itself superior, especially when we have proven otherwise." Haley expressed.

The turian councillor wasn't looking to well, he was keeping his temper in check, he made sure to address later, however the other councillors were taking in the events differently.

"Is that all we are in need to discuss at the present moment?" Haley asked.

"Yes, thank you professor." Tevos said uncertainly.

There was a pause until their next topic arrived, this one on the synthetic beings that lived within the UCA population.

Tevos announced. "The next subject on today is of the cybernetic entities; their species is under question of the council."

The representatives of the cybernetics league and the Unity of Knowledge religion appeared, both were human, with the exception of the man who had cybernetics running in different ranges of his body, he looked like a glowing outline rather than a human along with the dress robes he wore it easily distinguished him as a priest.

The young man took to the talk first.

"Greetings councillors, I am Marcus Varec- unit 1212, I am the representative for the UCA synthetic community league."

Then the priest with cybernetics introduced himself.

"And I am Inverse of Unity, the Priesthood of Unity and Clarity." He said respectfully.

"You are the representatives for all synthetic beings of the UCA?" Maelon asked.

"No, our last representative is waiting in the network, she will arrive shortly." Marcus said as he reached the console.

The image flickered to life when he accessed the systems, in a flash of light a humanoid figure appeared, her hair glowed orange until the colouring suddenly readjusted for her.

"Ah, that was better." Tanya said.

"Now we are all here." Marcus said passively optimistic.

The councillors were still getting used the idea of AI and synthetic beings, Tevos began.

"Now we may begin."

"Yes, well where to begin… we are the main representatives of the UCA synthetic population, we are all parts of each aspect; I am the physical and almost realistic form of machines."

"So you are not human?" Valern asked.

He nodded, Marcus's flesh began to vanish in a wave of energy and his skin prickled into metal, and suddenly a humanoid machine was standing there instead of a teenager.

"This is what I truly look like, though much better, as I am not naked, just metal plated, as all models by my standard." He said flexing a plate covered arm.

"What happened to your skin?" Tevos asked.

"Nothing, it was just Nano-reflective droids that cover my body, they are part of me and are provided to make me look human, and capable of letting me aid others, as they provide healing and medical means." He said with his hand glowing.

"So we see…"

Marcus turned to the priest.

"This is my counterpart, the Church of Unity and Knowledge; they are essentially a machine religion."

"A religion that was formed by living beings which believe in machine souls? Who in their right mind would have a machine religion?" Valern said confused.

"A people who wished for their own future councillor." The priest replied.

"What exactly are you?" Valern asked.

"I am part cyborg, I am simply am what I am, we all search for meaning and intelligence, and we are simply created to serve the great inheritor." He said.

"Great inheritor, who is this great inheritor?" Valern asked.

Marcus interrupted.

"I think that, your question will be answered soon, the Inheritor is waiting to arrive, though, and we cannot allow him aboard until we have concluded our discussion." Marcus explained.

"So, where were we?" Tanya included.

"We were about to ask you about your primary function within your society?" Maelon asked.

Tanya composed herself and explained.

"My primary function is to provide tactical and systematic information for a fleet of vessel or on the off note provide a means of gaining intelligence. I am simply a standard smart AI, we are built to acknowledge all threats and understand what purpose that surrounds our creation, but that's just a part time thought if things are boring." Tanya explained.

"So, you possess no hatred to your creators?" Valern asked.

"Why would we hate the people we love?" Tanya said.

There was a strange pause, until Duran made an acclimated cough.

"Well there isn't much to talk about either than that, but we don't approve of AIs no matter how impressive or how intelligent they may be." Valern said.

"And why would that be?" Tanya asked.

"Because AIs are supposed to be outlawed under council jurisdiction, we cannot allow any AI into council space that includes any cybernetic to synthetic. It is our expressed feelings that all intelligent machines are dangerous, unless the geth are aren't a threat." Valern said deftly.

"What would have us do, just restrict all synthetic beings from council space, that would require that the 3 billion people with cybernetic integration would never be allowed near any of your space." Marcus said.

"Yes, well, which is why we are asking the UCA not to restrict but remove your cybernetic creations permanently." Valern said.

There was another pause, but one that seemed to shock the UCA, how could the councillor even consider the notion of removal of all cybernetic creations from the late 24rd?

"That is not possible councillor, our people have lived as long as we have, and most only came around recently, we are a young race and any sentient law states a being that can think and feel is as alive as any other being. This is a crime to kill another sentient species." Marcus said in an angered tone.

It was at this point Tevos realised that the turians mistake in prejudice against the other races of the UCA.

"Now, we should not be considering genocide, the council must come to a full agreement before ever taking action." Tevos reminded Valern.

This did not reassure the synthetics from considering action; the turian councillor had stated the 'interests' the council had in the synthetic races.

The covenant hadn't either taken well to this news, especially with a race that called itself superior, these entities were not even worthy of calling themselves worthy of being called even close to the rightful rulers and guardians of the galaxy.

"May our covenant representatives be granted permission to speak?" Admiral Vance asked.

"Yes please." Tevos said kindly.

The prophet of Amity and Grand Arbiter Vadam stood ahead, their other covenant persons standing back.

"Greetings councillors, I am the Prophet of Amity and this is Grand Arbiter Vadam."

"Greeting, to you prophet Amity and greetings to you Grand Arbiter." Tevos said.

"We are here to represent out people, but also allow our voice to be heard ahead of the Inheritors arrival, he wishes that we could have met on less tensioned conditions, however he is soon to arrive." Prophet explained.

"And what might this Inheritor be?" Maelon asked.

"He is the inheritor of the gods, the very beings that had once ruled the very universe, and the stars, they were the holy and most chosen. We are simply their instruments, and their voice to the galaxy, the Inheritor was the last of their race."

"And these gods that you speak of are Prothean?" Valern asked.

"No, those entities were never capable of reaching the true power of gods, they were merely listeners and whispers of what the gods could truly do. For gods must be strong." Prophet said almost zealously.

Out in the crowds the Hanar simply called out. "That is impossible, the enlightened were the most powerful and righteous, and you and your kind are unworthy." He yelled.

"Be silent fool, we are true followers of the gods; do not make that assumption of the truth." He said annoyed.

"And when might we see this inheritor you speak of? Or is he simply a manufacturing of imagination? Your gods had declared that you aided these humans against us because they told you to?" Valern insulted.

"Don't you dare, speak of the gods in such a manner… for-."

Then in the flash of light, a being appeared, the body materialised from light, particles became solid and it seemed as a fire was quickly burnt out, with the particles flaring off the impervious armour.

The crowds stood impressed, with the exception of the UCA and its allies. The armour gleamed of pure energy; light emanated from the greaves in the armour and the shape, the body was plated and shaped into an actual body. The helmet of the suit was a pair of eyes glowing white with energy.

"I am Inheritor Vincent of Truesight, the will of the gods." He pronounced clearly as he levitated.

That was when everyone noticed the soldier was levitating without the need of a gravity generator or even any known form of technology that could even explain how the being was levitating.

The councillors suddenly bathed in warmth of light, they had never experienced such a feeling, the inheritor looked at them and said.

"You call for me?" He asked.

The prophet was in deep prayer and answered the inheritor.

"My lord, we had already begun our introduction for you, we are humbled by your presence in our midst great lord." Amity said.

The councillors looked at the floating being and asked.

"This is your god?" Valern asked.

"By their way of life, yes, I am the reincarnation of the forerunners, the will of light." Vincent stated calmly.

"And your race is an all-powerful species that had existed eons before?" Valern asked sceptically.

"Yes, by the covenant standards the forerunners had existed well before any of your known species, we have eternally watched the universe from the beginning and have continued to from then on." Vincent explained.

The council was unsure what to make of such a being; they were in the presence of a being that has stated that he was alive before the protheans ever existed. The sceptics were all around but also believers, they seemed unsure about what to make of the inheritor.

"Do not be threatened or apprehensive, as I am simply here to broker a peace between the UNSC and Covenant and council."

"Why exactly would a being such as you represent another species?" Maelon asked.

"I do not represent these known factions I represent the forerunners, those who are enlightened and in search of clarity, I am also the guardian and represent the sword and shield of the forerunners. I intend to reclaim the lost mantle of my people and pass it to humanity so they may ensure peace in the galaxy."

The council was at their ends, they didn't need to continue to speak about the rest of what had happened or what that needed to be done, and Vincent was probably going to be a study for the thousands of scientists and hanar for generations to come.

"Very well Inheritor we believe the case that you have presented, we do wish to continue our talks, and we will consider your offer of the forerunners, though that is still in question." Tevos said.

"I understand, though I should advise you that I was the last representative from the humans and covenant, I am merely here to offer the treaty and also to offer that you may be granted access to our space to conclude our talks, the UCA and the UNSC alongside the covenant would be welcoming to allow you to at least consider some hospitality of our races." He said curtly.

"That will be determinate of the outcome, we shall consider your words, and if we should continue our talks."

"Very well, this meeting of the council and the UCA and Covenant has been concluded."

XXXXX

It wasn't until another several days that the UCA allowed the Council races a meeting on their worlds, the UCA had been unsure to see the exchange go through smoothly. The UCA then granted their meeting, and their access into the UCA regions only for the tour.

The major fleet was left in orbit around the citadel purely because it was not seen as a necessary need for such force. And so an escort of four frigates was to link with the citadel escort fleet and take them into the UCA space.

The many Spartan teams along with the first representatives had been joined the trip back to UCA space to discuss the terms of the UCA neutrality. The turians had sent what fleet they could to protect their councillor. And the rest of the councillors followed suit, however in a less extreme manner.

The asari had been more open to talks and simply showed a show of force in only size rather than number, and the salarians in technology, as they wished to learn more about the UCA. The fleets managed to arrive at the UCA space station which had been recently produced at the Shipyards, the Arcturus Space Station was deployed to protect the UCA capital as it was not yet ready for launch into orbit around the relay.

The council and their entourage had for only a part of the time aboard their vessels before being transferred to a UCAF ship. Few and None was granted to be used for the transfer and allowed the councillors to enjoy the hospitality of the UCA and its allies, the journey was to take at least 2 days from the relay to Anomia through slip-space.

XXXXX

Aboard the Halcyon class cruiser Duran had to check in with Vance, as it was revealed that the council species had been busily looking about the ship, the turians being as ever vigilant amongst the crew and those also aboard.

There had been many issues with the AIs aboard the ship; the turians had been almost been zealous in checking for AIs in nearly every corner of the ship. If Duran was sure, there was more than a simple search; Tanya had been constantly called from one end of the Few and constantly being called by guests.

Then there was an incident with a cybernetic female marine down in the lower hold of the ship, a turian official who had been with her had decided to be courteous and try to get a learning about the UCA. He only began to react ecstatically when she advised him about her condition; he had been uncooperative and was detained to his room for a day.

The other incident was that a salarian STG member that was part of the security for his ambassador had been caught inside a physical interface for the AIs and their artificial shells. One of which of course was Tanya who had just wanted to attend the dinner with her fellow crewmen. She screamed at the salarian that had witnessed her in the nude, and then chased him out with a wrench. He was also detained for a day in his room to recover.

There were a few other minor incidents that followed with one ending in a bad mess, there were species that came from over a majority of the galaxy. Which included krogan, Urdnot Wrex was there to represent his clan, but he was also aiding in the contract with the UCA to help them in their claim for fertility.

His clan members had been enjoying their time with the marines; there was a trade of Rycnol and Whisky, though the krogan had their end when a Spartan from the Redeemers Corp had offered something called 'Blood Heat'.

The krogan had been reeling back from drinking the beverage, there seemed to be very friendly trade of cultures from that point on, and even though the krogans had been rough, the marines were always there to challenge their mettle.

Many species couldn't believe their eyes when a teenager beat a krogan at an arm wrestle, and then beat him in a sparring match. They were amazed that he survived being hit by a biotic punch to his lower torso; the young Spartan then proceeded to breaking the arm of the krogan and then tossing him over head.

Duran hadn't been as welcoming to allow the other species aboard a high classed military cruiser, but they had no large transports to allow movement for as many species as they were taking along with them.

XXXXX

It wasn't until they reached the orbital range of Anomia, there was supposed to be a short tour of UCA space, and Anomia was their first stopping point. The council was to see the extent of the war that had once affected the people.

The other species were surprised that the UCA was willing to show them the world that had been so terribly ravaged by war, the plains alone made most of the species think that there was nothing to be gained in allying with humanity.

The cities were being rebuilt after the contact war with the turians; they had arrived at Caldera City when they were told about how desperate Militia had been in trying to protect the city. A massive gap that was where the base that was stationed within had been an obvious point of damage, the turian councillor said though the cost to repair such damage would not be on them.

Then as they continued to move, they arrived at the UCA ONI base, it wasn't much of a secret as the facility was built for public use anyway. When they arrived they were greeted by the base AIs, the sudden interest in the UCA scientific research and development was vastly different from the council's own.

There were many things they had witnessed, such as the Spartan Laser and the Mass Accelerator Linear Rifle. They had many weapons that had been stored inside the base, though it was terrifying to the turians that they were at the back of technology when it came to advanced weapons.

There were many discussions but Duran and his escorts refused to answer any sensitive questions, the UCA wasn't planning on revealing too much about their power. Then as they arrived at the Vanguard training sector they encountered a unique squad of teens that were doing what the council stated impossible.

There were three teens firing off energy blasts at each other, Duran had explained what the Vanguards were. The powerful vanguards were a 1 in 1000 birth chance of the UCA; they used psychic powers from their unique telepathy from the forerunners inheritance.

One thing they had noticed was that they were deflecting energy off of each other, once Duran explained the phenomenon the other species wondered how powerful these vanguards were.

"I need to advise that you should probably never fight even one of them, they over power even the most powerful biotic users, we tried that with a skirmish a few weeks before, the biotic powers are on an uneven plane." He said.

They continued the tour of UCA regions and arrived at a small outcropping within a mountain, the facility was called: NOVA.

The facility was built for the Spartan V, they were surprised to be actually allowed access into such a secure facility, and the council species had been advised never to ever interrupt any of the Spartans training while they were attending.

X-Access Granted-X

NOVA welcomes you, please keep safe and avoid unnecessary contact.

Inside the facility they encountered why the UCA had said the facility was a publicly known one, they could see the thousands of Spartans being lined in definite rows. The more senior Spartans that were being prepared for launch sat in rear, they were disciplined and strong.

"Well looks like command decided to order a full uniform address for you to see how our soldiers are trained and treated, these Spartans are only one of the main 20 programs that exist." Duran explained.

The council species had been surprised; they had never believed that a species could possibly manage a massive super human army. And this was only just one program area, where 10,000+ were stationed.

"How have you managed to gain public support, people wouldn't be happy that children are being used in such a manner." Valern asked as they passed cold eyes of the Spartans.

"We have had most of our military as children during the first invasions, when we realised that we needed seasoned soldiers, we called upon those who survived those guerrilla warzones. And then from them, they began to help train these new Spartans, though we now call them the venerated."

They passed the multiple armoured Spartans who have finished their first year of open field operations, some had turian blood dried on their armour, while others had monuments to their battles, scars as evident as they were.

The turians looked visibly disturbed from the Spartans from the field; they looked with no care in what battles they participated in, the only difference was the painted colours of armour that each wore, all covered in blood.

"Well we should continue to the other units." Duran gestured.

They moved on through the ranks, until they arrived at the large armoured suits. "These are our armoured divisions, they possess the advanced firepower and designs of the UNSC/ MKIV powered armour prototype.

The only time the council species had seen the armoured prototypes were that of Rey 0159-Delta and his combat armour. The HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark I Prototype Armor Defense System that was originally developed at Algolis was then moved to UCA space, they were to vastly improve the suit, which they had.

As they passed the dozens of walking combat armors and their pilots they arrived at a less public region of the base. They arrived at the open training facilities; they had the youngest there training for war. Inside the rooms they could see each group of Spartans being trained thoroughly, advanced reflexes avoiding strikes from test dummies and drones.

"This is the marshal training for all new recruits; we have many of our more senior Spartans arriving here to aid in training, even though we don't rely heavily upon those classes of Spartans to completely train these new generations, they give useful insight into conflict and a proper advisor in military fields." Duran explained as he walked past a new group of Spartan pilots were being trained.

There were questions that the council species wanted answered, but they had to remain passive about how they said them, these Spartans in their minds were a terrifying force and one they'd rather avoid at all costs. It wasn't until they finally reached the marshaling grounds where the new candidates were being suited.

"Here we have the Spartans being outfitted in new Mark Five Crusader Class armor; these suits are specifically made for each class and variant of Spartans. And the people of Anomia have had only the crusaders to thank for their standard Spartan military type, we can now see them graduating from the academy front soon." Duran said as they walked past.

Finally seeing an opportunity to ask, Tevos curtly asked the captain. "Why are all these Spartans graduating, I believe you mentioned something about a year's training within field operations?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I meant, the Spartans are graduating from the academy to provide temporary service on the actual combat field and they'd be back in one year to help train and revive from service that is our policy." Duran stated.

The representatives simply nodded and continued on from there; progressing from the academy they arrived in a hangar where a massive gunship was awaiting their arrival.

"It seems as though our tour here is at an end, we must be heading off now, the Vulture class gunship will drop you off back in the cityscape, and I am needed here for the selection of a new Spartan team." Duran said politely and watched as the reps left him as he was.

XXXXX

Once returning to the city, the representatives were greeted by another officer, this time they recognized her as Tanya the AI, the representatives were still unsure how to react. She simply greeted them kindly.

"Welcome to Cine Point Lake, you are now at one of the more peaceful settled regions on Anomia; the city here is an orbital bridge between the planet and the orbiting shipyards. The city was much like Crystal Lake or the north grade bases; it is only that the city here was left literally unscathed by the wars."

They exited the vulture gunship to be greeted by standard marine guards that had parked their escort vehicles in front to give them the tour of the city.

Tanya was explaining what had been planned for their stay within the city until they left.

"We have some apartments that had been established for your use in the city; it was advised that this city would be the most comfortable for the remainder of your tour here on Anomia, the UCA will provide any types of necessities that you may require, but if there are any concerns please advise me or any staff members on duty."

XXXXX

The stay on Anomia was the longest stay out of the tour in UCA space, it was also the main focus of talks, and many of the council species had been arguing and debating over the possibilities of allying with the UCA, but that compromise would be difficult as they had many issues with the UCA.

Spartans at the main focus of the turians had been enough to consider an actual treaty even if it was a compromise from the doctrine; the UCA had made it explicit that the program wasn't going to end anytime early.

Salarians had the greatest concern in technology; they had discovered that the UCA mass accelerator class of weaponry was soon to overcome their weaponry in the next 10 years if they allowed them to join. The amount of ships was also a concern, cloaking fields and advanced ablative armor made the UCA ships far difficult to deal with.

The asari was the only race that was focused upon the populations' wellbeing; the human's war with so many species and other races it made them quite adamant in rejecting the council's offer, they'd never submit. But past the concerns of such things, the UCA was willing to grant the adoption of war orphaned children, only under the age of 5, the others would be taken to orphan camps where the UCA would attend to them.

XXXXX

Tevos had considered what she saw in these children, but something caught her eyes when she attended a tour of one of these orphanages, a young boy roughly about 6 that had brown hair and a strange peaceful gaze that seemed to intrigue her.

She was interested in the young child; she walked over and asked him. "Hello, what is your name?"

The child replied quietly. "Thom."

The boy struck her as slightly quiet, but not as shy, he was nice, even though she remembered she was alien to the boy, he seemed to like her.

"So Thom, do you like games?" She asked.

"Yes please." He said happily.

She remembered a game the marines on the vulture was playing, heads or tails. She removed a coin the UCA personnel gave her along with her currency for use. She didn't know why they still used hand held currency or solid, but she had to admit, spending some time with these people; you become endowed in their society.

She held the coin to the young child's eyes and asked. "Which side do you believe that this coin will land, if you guess correctly, then you may keep it."

The boy simply nodded and watched Tevos flipped the coin, the coin rotated in such a detail in the air.

"Flag." He said.

As soon as the coin landed in Tevos's palm, she revealed it, it was flag. Thom simply smiled and looked at the coin, and Tevos seemed amazed at the boy's detail of watching the coin, he had managed to estimate the drop as it went up, and then when it landed.

She didn't need any more convincement from any of the UCA officials in her choices, she was going to have this child as her own, and he was one boy she knew she could trust.

"Thom, I want to ask you, would you like a home?" She asked.

XXXXX

The following day was a busy one, especially for the council members, the council was ready for their last days on Anomia before they began to head off. There was one thing that happened the day before, Tevos had asked Tanya about the adoption program for selected children, her choice however had been unique.

She had chosen a child who had Forerunner DNA, the Precursor gene had been evident, Tevos was surprised that the Spartan DNA was inherited rather than simply random. The boy she had chosen was one that was planned for recruitment, though Tevos objected that the child is taken in such a manner.

Tanya had aided in her case and asked for a compromise with the UCAF, the Spartan Commander Grey had been called in to aid the case and allow for the compromise. The UCA would still train and teach the young one, but he was also allowed to live with Tevos, he was allowed for adoption while being in service.

Tevos had been almost apprehensive at the idea her son would be raised as a soldier, but it was compulsory for all children with his DNA, the UCA allowed for some other compromises, but Tevos was not allowed to have his DNA copied or replicated, and all medical treatment was by UCA not any other.

Several hours later…

Inside her temporary apartment, Tevos hefted her child along through to his new room, he was fast asleep, Tevos had battled with the UCA for her newly adopted son's wellbeing, and there were a few compromises.

The UCA allowed her to take him after a few minor medical treatments to allow him able to live with her, she didn't like the idea that the UCA had already begun the first augmentations in his body, as small as it was; she knew that he was going to grow up to be 7ft tall and vastly strong.

But right now, she didn't mind, Thom was her child now, and she was going to ensure that he would have a life that he can call his own.

XXXXX

The following day the UCA began their launch of another vessel that was to take the representatives to their next destination. The Aspire had finished her refit from the war; its entire crew was being deployed to help in the next destination.

The council reps had enjoyed a breakfast prepared by the ex-Spartan chef Jordan, he was amazing with two knives and a book of recipes, and he could easily prepare any kind of meal in short time. He of course was capable of sampling other classes of food; his gene augmentations had increased his ability to overcome the difference.

The council species had been talking about their next destination, the UCA had been aiding in dealing with many issues while the council was absent from the Citadel, it seemed as though it only required a single AI to do what the council did on a daily basis.

The council didn't like the idea of having to rely on an unknown AI to do their job, however there was still an armed fleet that surrounded the citadel, and they'd rather not aggravate anyone.

The council had meet in the hall where Jordan had prepared their meal, there was however in interesting appearance of Tevos's child…

"Why is there a human child holding your hand?" Valern asked as he read a filed report.

Tevos knew from experience that the turian was going to overreact when he heard the news.

"I have adopted a son Valern, and one that I believe will be the answer of the council in the future, and also he is the one that intrigued my interest, he is remarkable." She said rubbing his head.

Valern looked as though he could blow a vein in his head. "Have you lost your mind? We have very little time for children and I don't believe having a child of a species as hostile as them is even remotely a good idea, we have no idea what the result of our talks would result upon." He said annoyed.

"Valern, I believe the UCA and the Covenant is going to compromise, as also he is their trust to us, I'd rather not lose that trust, it wasn't easy to acquire him either." She expressed.

Maelon was trying to stay a good pace away from the discussion of the two, though he couldn't help looking at the young boy, who surprisingly looked taller than most children, he almost looked like one from the Spartan academy.

That was when the realization hit him in the face. "Tevos, did you adopt a Spartan child?"

The two stopped arguing and looked at him, Tevos slightly looked away, but she replied.

"There was a compromise, the child is Spartan capable, and they did augment him, he is a Spartan and one that I have in my care."

Valern and Maelon looked surprised; their asari associate had managed to adopt a Spartan.

"How and when did the UCA ever authorize this?" Valern asked.

"They made the compromise when I was at the center, they said they would allow the young one to be my child if he was allowed for their program much later, they had planned a compromise where they would remain neutral and allow for them to build an academy or a sector where they could aid him. They would also allow for other compromises in technology if we allowed him to gain an early seat alongside us."

"That is not possible, a compromise such as that-."

"…will not Valern, at least not for a long time, the UCA wants only that we agree to only two to three terms in the use of Spartans, and they would only gradually progress into council space." Tevos finished.

XXXXX

The Aspire left docks the next day, its destination inbound to the quarian systems, Tan was only a few hours travel by slip-space.

(Word count7, 777)

NEW STORIES

The Fable of Ascension

Fable/Warcraft/ETC

Over 19 years have passed from the end of the burning legion, and a new age has started, the heroes of old now pass, but a new era is on the verge. Albion Wyrnn the third child of the Anduin Wyrnn leads the kingdom of Lordaeron to recovery.

To Stormwind king Logan rules the southern continent, his rule is iron and cold, the people call for rebellion, and their leader, Ava Wyrnn the saint of the just lead the people against her brother to take the throne, but a threat comes upon the kingdom over the horizon…

XXXXX

Who shall lead our people to rebellion…?

NEXT ONE

Strike witches: Halo and all

1939

The earth that humanity lived upon was in turmoil, upon this day was the historical first contact with another alien species, but upon this day, it was recorded as the first interspecies war ever encountered.

Neuroi- the unknown alien race that appeared during the first contact initiated an unprovoked attack, by the next 6 months 20% of Western Europe was overwhelmed. Humanity defended all it could, but in the end it was insufficient in removing the threat.

It was not until however until 1940, when another contact appeared, a small dispatch of the strike witches patrol came upon a mysterious object lying in the Pacific Ocean. The massive black hull and unique design made it possible to be a very different power and species, when the strike witches entered the vessel, they discovered their answer.

1940

Pacific Ocean: Contact 1

In the creaking halls of the darkened ship a footstep made itself known as it hit metal, walking along the empty halls was a young woman no older than 16 with a strange pair of ears and a tail. Miazuki Haruno walked alone in that corridor, she had separated with her squad to cover more ground, and the massive ship was so big that they had called for an entire fleet as well as more assistance.

Miazuki was a Fuso girl, she always liked the ocean and her favourite colour was blue or navy, she never though like dark places. This was dark, and the only light she had was a flashlight, but as nervous as she was, she needed to get her job done and help salvage this mystery vessel for Japan.

There were other things that should be well known about her, she wore a red skirt and white shirt, not unlike that of the Maidens of the Shrines, but more to her liking, she never liked having to show her underwear to the world.

Walking down the next corridor to her right she located an open door, entering she found herself inside a strange room, it had a large pod inside and a bed along with it, there was many distinguishable items lying about.

'Was this someone's room?' She thought.

Walking into the room she walked about looking at all the strange items lying about, but what caught her attention was the pod. The glass was glowing a pale white and when she touched it she found it incredibly cold, she withdrew her hand and noticed the clear from the fog.

She then used a bit of her skirt and rubbed it over the glass quickly, she looked again, but this time she could see what was in the pod, inside was a person, there was a frozen person, a young man with frost covering him.

Miazuki didn't know what came over her, it looked as though he was dead but also alive, the only thing else she noticed was that his eyes moved over to her. That was when she screamed.

Another woman a few years older, but still veteran was looking at a mysterious machine on a desk, it had been glowing when she touched it by accident. Kirisana Fuiken was the commander of her search team, being the eldest and most seasoned she was in charge of the patrol team.

She was a 21 year old veteran with more years of combat experience than most of her fellows; she had long black hair and wore a single piece swimsuit with a large short that covered most of it. She registered the scream from her subordinate Miazuki seeing as she was the only one who could scream the loudest.

She ran from the desk and hurried out of the room to where Miazuki was screaming; she quickly made her way about and reached the doorway, upon entering there was two things. One was that the others were on their way, and second thing was that Miazuki was hiding under a pile of sheets where a bed was.

"What's with all the racket?" She asked.

Miazuki popped her head out of the sheets and said. "There's a person still alive in the pod." She pointed out.

Kiri looked over to where the pod was and looked at it, walking over, she looked inside, a person was frozen inside, and he looked quite alive but still very cold. His eyes were open and they seemed to be staring at the ceiling.

She looked back at Miazuki and said. "What are you panicking about, the person's just frozen."

Miazuki tried to reply but the rest of the squad piled through the doorway.

"We heard Mia-chan screaming, what was all that about?" A brown haired girl asked.

"Nothing, just a frozen person and Mia-chan with her imagination." Kiri replied.

"A frozen person?" The brown haired girl said confused.

Kiri made no other attempt to explain much, she walked back to the pod, and she could see clearly the person inside the pod. The man inside was definitely frozen and not much else, but what was surprising was that it was a human.

"Ana-chan, how long till we get support?" Kiri asked.

"Not long, the fleet said they'd be here in the next few days." She said.

"Well it looks like we're going to have to wait here then." Kiri said.

The squad suddenly broke into unhappy sighs. "Oh, but I wanted to sleep on a mattress not a steel floor." Mia said.

"Well deal with it, we can't leave this ship until we get clearance from command, and you know how they feel about disobeying orders."

XXXXX

It took nearly two hours, but they managed to locate the sleeping quarters, though when they actually entered, they were surprised. The massive sleeping quarters were stacked with rows upon rows of beds. Mia and the rest were surprised to see the massive setting of beds.

"Wow, this is amazing." Mia said.

"Don't get comfortable, this is only temporary for us, and I want to make sure that this ship is safe for the fleet, no good finding something this great only to have it ransacked by pirates." Kiri said.

They all agreed and went to sleep, with the exception that someone had to spend the night with the frozen person. Mia didn't want to go so she voted that the next person should, and that unfortunate girl was Hyuna Ito.

Hyuna had no quarrel with sleeping next to the frozen person, she liked quiet places, and she was a night person. She brought her books and a few things to keep herself busy while on duty, she sat herself next to the person and sat at the desk reading.

She was a woman of few words, and much like her fellow witches she had a few things in common, she had dark grey hair and had a Fuso style dress on, she simply lay on the desk and then began to look at the pod.

She couldn't seem to shake the feeling of looking at the pod and more and more. "It couldn't hurt to look at him closer, could it?" She thought.

She moved over and looked at the pod, but when she stared inside she leaned to close to the bottom pedestal, and which was not a pedestal, it was a control pad…

A series of beeping and sounds started to emanate from the controls; she looked from the controls and noticed all the controls begin to light up. She began to panic. "Oh no, what do I do?"

The pod began to his and steam, she had to stand back and watch with only managing to pass out from the exposure to the sudden heat wave from the pod.

XXXXX

Ian-SPV-0133 woke with a sudden burst from his pod; he felt the world come back into focus as he looked about at the room. He was in the secondary preparation room, one built for Spartans in need of combat; he looked about dazed from the universe.

Ian was one of the newer Spartan V, he was the fifth generation of the Spartans, only mass produced in early 2551, and well that was when he was deployed. Walking out of his cryo pod he looked about to see a person lying unconscious at the feet of his pod, it was definitely human, but one that was less dressed than he would like.

She was raven haired and sleeping quite nicely on the floor… he decided to just lie her in the bed and then head off, he needed to get his armour on. Walking through the darkened hallways, he made his way over to where the armoury was and where the Spartans had remembered to store away their armour.

Ian was not the one however to have standard issue grade armour and so he always left his at the machine shop inside the heavy cruiser. As he entered the armoury he found that nothing had been touched, he could assume that most of everyone was still in cryo and weren't able to defrost yet.

Making his way over through the armoury he arrived at the short cut to the machine shop, opening the side maintenance hatch he located what he was looking for. In the open room where there were a few warthogs under repair he managed to find his armour situated exactly where he last left it.

The MKIV-Crusader class remained where it had been for as long as he was in sleep, the impressive suit sat perfectly as he began to unload it from the holding rig, pushing the green light to set down, he moved it over to him to use.

The suit began its diagnostics as he suited up, it took just 45mintues for full initialisation and for a full systems diagnostics, and he knew that the suit would probably register as fully functional even at 25% of its capabilities.

Ian began to walk off, he had work to get done and had little time to rest, and the crew needed a wakeup call…

XXXXX

Hyuna woke up with a start, she yawned and then looked about, and she had a nice rest, she dreamt that the man woke up and then left her in bed…

"Oh no…" She said.


	28. Chapter 22

CH22

XXXXX

An age of revelation… the end of an era

And there's a big secret at the end!

XXXXX

The Aspire came out from slip-space; the large combination of the prowler/frigate approached the small fleet of ships in orbit around New Vannoch, the Aspire approached unhindered. This had been expected of the quarians to be welcoming to the UCA and Covenant for their aid against the turian invaders.

When they landed the ship at New Faith the council species were in for the surprise of a lifetime, upon exiting the ship, they encountered a large crowd of quarians who no longer had their suits on themselves.

Duran and the many other crewmen were greeted by the sight; they were being heralded as heroes for saving them from the council, and also allowing them citizenship in the greater union of species. The Spartans had been waiting for such an arrival for some time, the people were cheering as they entered the city.

There had been major restoration into rebuilding the damage caused by the war; the quarian people were not as welcoming to the council or the turians. The Aspire powered down as it let the passengers from it hold, Tevos had been intrigued that the quarians had been able to remove their suits without falling ill in these conditions.

The UCA had told them about the genetic adaptations to them, now with the fact there was millions of healthy quarians who could now colonise without much difficulties, the new age of their people could reach prosperity.

As the representatives began to walk about the city, they had an interesting insight into quarian lifestyles outside their ships, the city was a surprising grey and dull steel coloured it had many new buildings being erected and placed in geometrical shape.

The UCA had done everything possible to aid the quarians in living; there was over 40 million that lived on the planet, majority human. The quarians had been recently decommissioning their mass effect cores; the UCA had said their expressed concern that dark matter was dangerous to their population and asked for any remaining cores to be fully decommissioned.

The council species had felt as though they had walked into a new world, the UCA had explained that a majority of the city was built much like UCA cities, but was made to suit most quarians. The warm and humid temperatures were acceptable for the quarians even though their biology required just more arid conditions.

The representatives were intrigued by the UCA and their equality to the quarian people, there was a definite mix of culture and lifestyles, the people of New Faith were a people who were quite welcoming of change and some peace.

But this was only because they were sympathetic for them due to the turians and their invasion some time before; the people were now open for talks about their next choice. The war ending and the council considering allowing the UCA to stay either neutral, but there have been some concerns as to how the council was going to consider the quarian people.

The turians had an open mind, but still despised the quarians for simply abandoning them for the UCA and allowing them to invade Amphora during the war. And there was also the trade of technology and information, the UCA had gathered a majority of its intelligence from the quarians of the majority of the galaxy.

The asari were neutral, they had no absolute love for every species but not care, the UCA would probably invade the council space, and as well as confront them. There was nothing to be gained for prosecuting the quarians and nothing to acknowledge.

The salarians didn't know how they'd apply themselves to the current set of events, the salarians had managed to see the effects of the UCA, and they had proven that they were far greater in genetic augmentation, and adjustment. The quarians were now a living proof that the UCA was capable of genetically adjusting an entire species, their works had allowed for a change in the galaxy.

The species were torn between either questioning the quarians authentication of living here, seeing as the turians still despised them, or the point where they should simply let them remain as they were.

XXXXX

The delegacy arrived at New Faith's eastern city, they were to receive news of the turians prisoners of war, and they arrived at one camp where they had held the tens of thousands that had been captured by the UCA.

"As you can see, the UCAF is keeping all prisoners of war in equal standards as any being, the turian prisoners are in good care, the UCA has yet to release any until the treaty is signed or considered, as we cannot hold any prisoners in this region for too long, we didn't want them here." Tanya explained.

"Well that would be nice to have our soldiers back to, but that decision upon your people is still needed, and we won't sign a treaty until all the species is capable to agree upon it." Valern said as they passed some cells.

The prisoners were watching and saluting as the turian representatives walked by, the marines were more lenient in letting the prisoners to do just one thing, and it wouldn't hurt them in the long run as they expected an end to the conflict very soon.

After the prison camps they arrived at one military base, a small field operations base in the north, the UCA had begun to bring the base up to an active status for the presentations of personnel. The marines had been recruited throughout the entire war, many from militia or local defence forces to military academies and guerrilla fighters.

Many had been recruited over 30 years and so, they all ended here in the Nova Stratus regions, many who had lost homes and family, many that continue to fight even though years after the war. They went about their many duties as their guests toured the base.

As they entered they were greeted by a security check point and over a dozen guards in advanced ablative and energised armour. The marauders, the veterans and the more recent additions to all UNSC and UCA forces, originally formed as troops for deployment in ground assaults and major fronts, their advanced skills in new armour and weapons gave them a serious edge.

It however was not until later in 2550 that all UCAF troops from the N7 programs were to be called into the marauder ranks, the marauders were to be utilised a main forces, with only the marines and ODST closely following behind.

They travelled across the base in a non-com HRVs-(heavy reconnaissance vehicle) the personnel climbed into the side entries, the vehicles were made to have doors thankfully. They travelled over to the barracks and the maintenance bays.

The large barracks seemed to emphasise the sheer number of military persons per barracks, they drove by the maintenance bays that were in use of repairs of vehicles, and there were many tanks and the obvious warthogs.

"Here we have the barracks, there are approximately 75,000 military personnel stationed with an auxiliary of 45,000 in training. There are also the local repair hubs for the many vehicles of the mechanised 21st that was stationed here along with the air forces." Tanya explained.

There was a slight pause of recognition to the military strength the representatives seemed to feel the amount of force that they were packing in just military was purely overwhelming. That was suddenly dwarfed as they passed the next hangar.

The HRVs drove past the mass of open hangars and the impressive array of weapons; they were passing the mechanised division.

HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark I Prototype Armour Defence System, the sheer sight of over 50 of these suits was enough to dissuade anyone who saw them.

The armour was a development of an earlier version of the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armour, designed for use by the SPARTAN-IIs. However, despite its effectiveness, the idea was mainly scrapped, as the user was very vulnerable and it was too complicated for use on the limited number of Spartan-IIs. The prototype of this Exoskeleton suit was destroyed, along with all of its data due to the enactment of the Cole Protocol during the Battle of Algolis. However the ONI in 2530 brought in over 5 of these decommissioned suits into Nova Stratus and asked for a mass production into these suits for next generation pilots to use.

Features

Unlike the more advanced MJOLNIR system, the user does not need to be augmented to wear the armour.

Though the HUD seems similar to the MJOLNIR configuration, the suit's integrated weapon system and improved target assessment bypass the need for a neural interface link. The suit uses simple Laser and radio for communications but was later upgraded with trans-light communications, does recycle fluid and oxygen, and is loaded out with pre-existing weaponry but was later upgraded when the MKIV was developed; the suit was overall cost effective and was easier to produce than most suits.

Armaments

The main strength of the suit lies in the myriad of weapon systems it boasts, each integrated not directly into the infrastructure of the exoskeleton. The right arm has a hand hold end with an 850-round, six-barrelled Lucifer AMGG this was adjusted with the Vulcan rifle semi-automatic gun.

What must be a targeting sensor suite resides in a separate scope mounted on top of the rifle. The left and right shoulders are topped with a quad-barrelled LAU-1810 missile launcher armed with SGM-151 heat-seeking missiles that are identical to those fired by the common LAU-65D/SGM-151. On the other rear of the exoskeleton, an M149 Magellan recoilless rifle is magnetically attached. It requires the operator to manually aim it for accuracy. The suit comes loaded with one hundred amd fifty of the Magellan's explosive 105mm rounds, each with a blast radius comparable to a five-meter spread. The suit's left arm ends in a mechanical hand used to both operate weapons and manipulate external objects with ease. Two additional missile tubes are attached to the forearm and are packed with identical missiles as the shoulder-mounted cluster.

To complete the complement, three Type-18 Claymore explosives are attached to each thigh, each with enough power to completely engulf a Wraith tank in the blast.

Equipment

The suit makes use of a number of high-tech innovations to operate efficiently in combat. One of these improvements is an integrated jetpack used for powered flight. This jetpack uses a total of four stabilizers and four afterburner thrusters located on the front and back of the suit. Directional control seems to be provided by shifts in balance by the operator. When not in use, the pack's thrusters fold into slots in the suit to protect from external damage. Another useful addition is the incorporation of the core technology behind ONI's reverse-engineered Bubble Shields. The dynamic nature of the shield makes it automatically engage when the suit comes under fire.

List of components

This exoskeleton is based on titanium alloy plating and Nano composite titanium microfiber

Dynamic Local Dissipative Shield Technology

T261 Lucifer AMGG (Arm-Mounted Gatling Gun) with 20mm high explosive rounds, alternate-hand attachment

Type 18 Magnetic/Bayonet-style Claymore which can be primed, attached, or otherwise impaled into nonmagnetic surfaces

Motion Sensor with 1400m+ range (with map mode) across flat surfaces with minimal destruction

2x Ventral VTOL Stabilizers

2x Dorsal VTOL Stabilizer

4x Afterburner Thrusters

LAU-1810/SGM-151 Shoulder-mounted, self-guided high explosive missiles

M149 Magellan RCL - Armour mounted recoilless rifle with 105mm high explosive ordnance

A 300 megaton lead-tampered nuclear fission self-destruct sequence component (in compliance with Cole Protocol and WINTER CONTINGENCY), which would reuse the fusion components of the suit's power system and begins a staggered countdown which could only be activated with a voice command and detonate

The suit was only mass produced after it was heavily upgraded, and only so many were made, Rey 0159 was one of the selected pilots of the more advanced combat suits, these were simply regulars built for combat.

They couldn't help but stare with awe and fear.

XXXXX

They stopped at one place where there was a quarian vessel being decommissioned, the old cruiser needed to be recycled and smelted down for whatever salvageable.

"Why is it necessary to even be recycling these ships, they're bound to have almost nothing?" Valern asked.

"As that may be the case, these ships are needed to be properly disposed of due to their nature. And it was advised that any element-zero vessels are to be either re-adapted or removed due to some unknown risks involved with the elements and is considered dangerous."

"What? All E-zero classed vessels here are to be decommissioned? Why would you do such a thing?" Valern asked.

"Because the UNSC and UCA agreed that many of these mass effect cores are considered unsafe for constant use, and UCA and UNSC along with covenant space has no means to refuel these cores, element zero does not exist in high concentrations and most species would not pay for such things." Tanya stated.

"Yes, however in council space element zero is a fuel source and it is needed to fund our economy, unless you have a better solution to that problem." Valern said sarcastically.

"Actually we might have a better solution, your ships that run on element zero can have use alternate power sources, fusion to pulse and plasma generators that we use are far more energy efficient and fuel, seeing as we never have to replace the core after 75 to 300 years depending on what type." Tanya replied.

Tevos offered her opinion. "That seems nice of you to consider, however the use of such power sources is not considered safe or secure, your FTL form of travel is different, and the people will not simply adjust to a new power source or means of travel just because you offered, seeing as it will not be cheap to refit every vessel in the galaxy."

"Yes that is a considerable view, but the UCA is already offering that to its citizens, the use of our power cores and form of travel varies and we believe that the use of subspace with other species would not be allowed till some years later, we must attend to trust amongst our species."

The convoy of vehicles continued along their way through the base, and driving past many of the buildings arrived at their needed location. A large facility, the "Hyperion" was a large field base, built only during recent times.

The UCAF had built the base to ensure continued security as well as development of technology, this was one of the brain children of Dr Halsey.

They exited the warthogs and travelled on foot, many didn't like that the UCA would use such transports instead of hover cars. But this was a society that had been isolated for nearly 300+ years from the rest of their species.

The delegates entered the open hangar, it was spacious and larger than life, it stretched over a good 1km ahead, but the strange thing was that it was empty, with the exception of one guard at a desk who was reading a magazine on his data-pad.

Tanya said to the guard. "Simon, let them in."

The guard nodded and simply said out loud as he hit the button. "Please keep your limbs inside at all times and please do not stare directly into anything bright, it will hurt your eyes."

They wondered what he said, but suddenly the floor beneath them began to open, the twenty or so delegates almost panicked, but they realised that it was an elevator.

Tanya was bemused at what the reaction of the council species was, she liked the fact that they had been in need of a wakeup call.

"Welcome to the Hyperion Corporation base, this facility provides hundreds of advanced ships and vessels and new technologies, as well as works together with the quarian race to provide this technology, as reminded please do not exit the vehicle."

XXXXX

The delegacy headed on down the tour, they passed hundreds of amazing sights, they weren't as threatening or intimidating, but it was impressive, the UCA had spared no expense to improve their technology to that of the Covenant.

The advanced stealth vessels and new assault cruisers had been being planned and constructed, the development teams provided the schematics and blueprints, but there were some difference in opinion.

They continued on, past the many new devices and vessels, they witnessed the new stealth units for marines and the advanced mechanics of the new scorpion class battle tank which was set to launch in early December, and the variable classes of the new SR-1 series of stealth frigates.

They went by as Spartans began transporting their new adaptive armours, the UACF had put out all the stops as to how much resources they were putting into development, and with the quarians to aid them in developing technologies to suit themselves in the greater universe.

Tanya addressed them as they approached their final destination.

"Here is our stop, the UCAF Aspire, which has finished her refit and reconstruction as it had been in need for an immediate reconstruction. The last conflict this ship had served in you should know well. Captain Duran has been expecting you for some time and he has also been waiting for you to become well acquainted with some recent members of the crew who had been added in your accommodations here." Tanya said.

The delegates were confused as to what she had meant that there had been new crew; they made their final approach to the station platform when they noticed what she had been talking about. There were at least half a dozen new figures waiting on the platform with marine guards.

The figures were easily distinguished as the Spartans from the NOVA training grounds and marshalling field. They were all N5 generation, these Spartans were designated as the first of the newest Spartans.

Each Spartan had the markings from their respective chapter of Spartan companies; the first two were veteran classes that graduated the fastest from the Crusaders. The other two were both tactical reconnaissance divisions of the vindicator class, and the final pair of Spartans was from the Liberator class.

The multi coloured suits were enough to indicate a heavy amount of security, as the delegates exited the anti-gravity gondola, they walked to the troops. The crusader as the leaders saluted along with the other Spartans and addressed.

"Greetings we are Spartan team Silver, we've been assigned as escorts for your final destination to the home world of the forerunners, as you can imagine, and the inheritor has been expecting your arrival for some time." The commander stated.

"Very well let's proceed." Tevos said.

The delegates walked along behind the squads that were escorting them to the refitted frigate, once aboard the Aspire, they noticed the change in the ship, it had been streamlined in the past couple of days.

"What happened?" Valern asked.

"Sentinel construction units and the large amount of field production models managed to repair the ship for us, and also there was a new refit, that includes many of the fighters."

The acknowledged what the Spartans said as they recognised the ship's interior had been remodelled, there had been an entire overhaul of the rear of the ship, there were rigs in place above to hold all the vehicles for deployment and a vast variety of tanks and troop transports being added in.

As they continued being reacquainted with the ship, they were greeted by Duran, who looked somewhat happier, he was glad to see that the ship would be ready before the final meeting, and then afterwards the council had to decide whether or not to enforce their laws upon them.

Duran greeted the delegates. "Greetings and welcome aboard the stealth frigate Aspire, I assume you remember me from the Few and None, I am the captain of this vessel, and I do welcome you aboard, we will be making our trip to the forerunner home world, please restrain from walking about the ship, it is a military craft and we are only here to escort you to the secure location of the world."

The council members nodded and listened well to the advice and greeting, but there was some interest in what the forerunner home world was. Though many of the delegates were restraining themselves about the ship, Duran could see the people wondering about their final meeting with the forerunner.

XXXXX

Down in the hangar Luke and Jack were talking to Cameron, they met sometime before during the war, they managed to survive and arrive at Anomia on the western continent, and there they managed to link up with the remnants of the second fleet.

"Tough times don't last, tough people do." Jack said.

"We sure do, I never thought we'd survive, you know, considering what happened to Andrew and Alex, Joseph and Pierre, all of them were dead." He said sombrely.

"So, what do you plan to do if the council agrees to the UNSC and UCAF neutrality policy?" Cameron asked the brothers.

"Well first, I would like to get a colonial military and defence contract for the new patrol regions, you know get in and get to work, pirates and slavers are easier targets than entire f*** loads of covenant, I'm getting to old for that." Jack said emphasising his point by his arms.

His brother seemed to nod in agreement. "Same, the s*** we had to deal with during the war, no way are we getting back into an open warzone, besides what can a bunch or pirates do? Make an army?" He joked.

Cameron admitted the UNSC and UCAF with the New Covenant were going to be more than just formidable for the galaxy; they might be a threat to nearly all the various alien species that have been thriving off of piracy and war.

"Well hopefully in the future, we'll just have to see." Cam said.

XXXXX

Melissa was clearing some of her gear from the door of her new SVF-Sabre Variable Frame, this new Sabre came into production during the war, and it hadn't been seen as much as the Sabre-1s or the Striker Assault fighters, but it was a recent addition to all UNSC and UCAF.

She was stationed here since it all began and she remained with the Aspire since, she still saw her old friends here and there, but many had 'passed on' since the main confrontations. The only known officers she had were Jackson and Reyes; the other members had died on campaigns throughout the region or were MIA.

Cleaning the main drive shaft of the landing gear she went back to the cockpit to get systems diagnostics set out. As Melissa climbed in she was greeted by Michi who materialised on her display.

"So, having another long day are we?" He asked with a smirk on his holographic face.

"You know it, the UCA has the entire military up to green and beyond, these council races are seemingly hard to impress, but from what I've seen they practically jump at the sight of a ion generator or resonator core." She said annoyed.

"Don't worry Melissa, the UCAF can finally end this damn war and we can all go home, hopefully. But I thought you were going to stay on? You know as a pilot? The people could use your skills and sharp sights in battle, not to mention the amount of Hello Tom and Tom jokes."

"Yeah, really funny Michi, now can you please start this piece of junk up? I need to get things in order before Cap passes through here with the delegates."

XXXXX

As the day went by, the council found itself in the comfort of the UCAF again, this time in their actual naval division. The UCAF had planned for a full introduction to their actual naval forces, the vessel classifications and designs, though only basic outlines rather than detailed schematics were ever shown.

It was an interesting time, the amount of people there seemed to be friendly, but that was on the outside, the truth was the display of force was enough, and intimidation wasn't as necessary, the UCAF and UNSC didn't need to look like aggressors.

The UNSC and UCAF had displayed the vast array of large warships and dreadnaughts, not to mention the sheer amounts of new stations and defence platforms and carriers. The council seemed open to think that the UCAF could possibly provide the galaxy with all kinds of protection, but that was too soon.

The majority of thoughts were on the idea of maintaining a major force in the galaxy, but with recent events it was turmoil, the human race along with the covenant was a size that could and would overwhelm most of the galaxy. But there was a factor which still remained, the UNSC had suffered devastation and the covenant but to a lesser extent, the human race was still in recovery.

Tevos saw that this was an opportunity to make allies and a great trader; Maelon had his views as salarians saw opportunity in technology and medicine, however Valern saw a new race from the ashes of war, they had years of exhausting conflict and they wouldn't be so easy to persuade, a military threat and asset, he couldn't make his mind up.

The ship docks were left behind as they made the traverse into slip-space, the journey would take a few hours, and in which gave all the delegates and representatives to see the amazing world where the forerunners had once inhabited.

The hanar were the only race that had a religious purpose for being aboard the tour, they had believed that the protheans could have met this forerunner, but much was still to be determined.

The UCAF wanted all the races to feel comfortable when they arrived, the trip wasn't long, but it was going to be a long day.

Tevos enjoyed her time with her son, Thom, the boy had been a delight to her, she never thought what it might have been actually having a son, she thought of getting into a relationship, but there was no one to really relate to or have enough time for. But with her son, she saw that there were possible answers.

Valern had spent days going over the total reports from the hierarchy, they all pointed to the same conclusion 'peace', they had no means of victory unless they gained a massive boost in technology and economy to deal with the humans.

Maelon spent his time talking to Tanya, his interest in AI technology was not unexpected, other salarians wouldn't usually jump at the idea, but he had his reasons.

As the ship exited out of the portal, they arrived at their destination; the home world of the inheritor, Vincent of Truesight wanted a display.

And in front of the delegates a millions lights were ever present above the world, and the lights on the surface of the world, the entire thing could have seemed like part of the stars themselves in the void of space, but the planet had a blue surface that could be seen.

"What are all those lights?" Valern asked.

Tanya explained. "Those are sentinel drones; they are ever present guardians of the forerunners and attend to security and defence. There above the world is the small portion of their space capable defences, active only for some time before heading back to the world."

"Those are all machines?" He asked suddenly.

"Yes, all are sentinel class interceptors and guardians, though these are just a handful."

"There are more?" Maelon asked.

"There are approximately 10 trillion to 100 trillion in total of numbers." She said.

The delegates suddenly fell quiet at the numbers.

"There are more of them than the population of the citadel races and non-affiliated races?"

"Yes, that is why they only remain here, if need be, they can be deployed with a fleet to secure systems in threatened regions."

The council didn't need to speak about the topic anymore; the numbers were enough to draw caution. These forerunners were powerful.

XXXXX

Once arriving on the main location of the landing zone, the delegates exited the Aspire, they had entered into the world of the forerunners, the ship had to land by atmosphere to clamp, and once then an anti-gravity field locked the ship into position and set mag clamps.

They were on the well-lit surface of the world, the amazing towers and endless amounts of construct lights. They travelled to a gravity gondola and set off once more, but they had a guest.

A floating orb arrived to greet the council and delegates. "Greetings, I am Transcendent Vector monitor of Reverence, the world on which you now stand."

"An AI of the forerunners?" Valern asked.

"Yes, that I am, the forerunners created me prior to cataclysm event-001. I am here as a guidance for all future forerunners and their allies and descendants such as these humans, I live to serve the greater good of the galaxy."

The quarians had never been on the world, yet and they were only present for this part of the tour, this was kept as an interesting surprise for them.

"Where is this inheritor, we only met him once and he said that we have been granted an audience on his world." Valern said explicitly.

"Foresight as he is soon to achieve has nearly completed his greater trials, he may soon be able to see you, granted that he is busy. You must wait for a week until he can recover, he will be terribly exhausted from the trials."

"What trials may they be?" Tevos asked.

"The trials of foresight, they are granted the ability to see into the future, this is through intense psychic training and discipline, he will though not be physically able to return for the time being and has kindly asked if you could wait."

"Very well, then, we shall explore your world until he has recovered." Valern said.

"That was the initial plan, though I will be acting guide, lady Tanya will only be here for explanations to certain human relations."

XXXXX

News of the UCAF and UNSC soon reached all ears of the galaxy, and into the very recesses of the terminus systems, the batarians found that they had another race to deal with in the Attican Traverse, one that had more firepower and combat capabilities than all the races combined.

The major slavers and pirates were dealing with the fact that there were dealing with the same issues, the galaxy was becoming crowded. But this time it produced a race that could not only fight back, but bite and kick, they were going to have to deal with more than just a few militias.

But the most apparent news had arrived on Omega, one very specific asari watched from her holo screen, the council was on leave and an AI was technically in control from what rumours had said. The UNSC and UCAF alongside the new Covenant had taken control of the citadel and were in current talks to end the conflict to which the turians hierarchy were in.

Aria T'loak was watching with the grin of satisfaction on her face, she couldn't help but smile, the humans and the covenant had brought the council's attention when they usually ignored everything in sight. But this was unique due to the UNSC and UCAF being able to fight the turians off and ally the quarians, there was nothing small in what these humans were doing.

Aria had a vested interest, the council would attempt to demilitarise the target race, but from what the news was, the UNSC and UCAF was unlikely to ever disarm, the sheer amount of wars they were in, they'd never agree to such terms.

Now the war was at its end, the humans wanted peace, or it would only result in a prolonged conflict that the turians did not want. Aria knew that the turians would be forced to agree to a compromise, and once that is complete, the UCAF would be allowed to begin a proper agreement with the council, but they'd take a neutral stance.

The glow of Omega made Aria wonder if the effects of these humans on the galaxy were going to affect her influence on Omega, but then again, she had her power still intact, and that was enough to remain partially passive.

"The galaxy is changing…" She thought to herself.

Aria smiled as she could only wait for whatever might come in the future.

XXXXX

The days passed as the council waited for the inheritor to recover from his trials, he was only over schedule after another week, but that was not the concern, the council was not supposed to wait, especially for a being they had never had much knowledge of.

But that was only in the opinion of Valern who bitterly looked at the reality of his situation, but he was still young, and still getting the seat of power in his head. The council was supposed to be a poise group of individuals that were and could handle the many situations of the galaxy, and resolve these issues with confidence and calm.

Valern had been watching the city around him for the time, he was impressed that these forerunners had been so powerful and that they still were, even after 100 millenniums, they were a power to be reckoned with. There was also the fact that the many other races were also here, the salarians invited from universities and prominent organisations but also those from military and public standards.

Valern simply watched the city around him, the turian hierarchy was going to need headway to access these forerunners technology, but that might be in the not too distant future of events. The super weapons created by them were astounding, but in the forerunner terms of weapons they were considered tools, tools to which the council and hierarchy could benefit from if given a chance.

However the forerunners had long since disposed of many of these vessels and weapons, only the basic tools and constructs remain throughout the universe and only so many are here. The forerunners had many reasons for not permitting the rest of the human race to access any overwhelming pieces of technology; the risks involved were too high.

The thoughts of gaining technology like the forerunners might be beneficial, but possibly only to humanity, that didn't dissuade Valern from not thinking what might be possible with the said technology; it just made him certain that the hierarchy was going to plan ahead.

XXXXX

Thom was currently sleeping happily in Tevos' lap, she really didn't mind of the child; she was busy reading the final details of compensations and requisitions of the UCA and UNSC along with the Hierarchy. The compromise was nearly complete and they could all head back to their daily lives, with a few more people around.

The UCA and UNSC were both permitting access to a certain amount of systems in human space, the Nova Stratus regions alone were open, though the UEG and ICA had declared that only UCA space was for council species access and Sol was only a reservation.

If there were visits it would be by a proven status as a citizen of the colonies, and that was by quarians and covenant, the UCA wouldn't grant permission to council species unless through marriage or birth right.

Tevos felt as though she was more than a few hundred years younger and a few decades older, things had been thrown around for the past days she could barely think of what might had been occurring on the citadel while talks had been progressing.

But the harsh reality always found a quiet time, even for her, Thom squirmed slightly in her lap as she paused, she could tell that her child was going to become a figure of power either a brilliant mind or determined leader.

"Goddess may she watch over you my child."

XXXXX

The days passed and finally an audience was granted to the council, Vincent had been recovering back inside the central chamber while they were engaged in other business, now being able to greet the being in a near formal environment the council was at least pleased not to wait any further delays.

"Welcome councillors … I do hope that my appearance does not disturb you, I had a rather intense incision with a certain entity within the light." The blindfolded man said as he walked over to them.

Vincent had undergone his final trials, and as such he was in recovery, being young as he was didn't mean he wasn't going to recover any faster. From what the council learnt from the archives in the city, the foresight rite was a very rigorous test of faith, and only a forerunner could complete the task.

"There is no need to apologise, we can understand the necessity of what you must accomplish, and we just hoped that you may have alerted us to your condition before arriving." Tevos said thoughtfully.

"Yes, that was an oversight on my behalf; I was concentrating on the need to focus power and may have inattentively been unable to contact you."

"So, there is a fair deal of issues we need to discuss if pleasantries are over?" Valern asked.

"Ah, straight to what is needed to be said, I have had premonitions of events, though vague from my past, it tells me of an impending incident with a weapon called Halo…"

XXXXX

They arrived at the dais of Vigilance, a massive disk in a cylindrical chamber with many floors, it was much like that of the library on the many Halos', however this one was constructed to be a storage facility of all known forerunner schematics and developments.

"I warn you councillors, what you hear from me here should not leave this place, none shall ever hear of you speak off it, as there shall be consequences should you, Halo, the last resort, our last chance to save the universe from the flood.

Halo was constructed 101,625 years to the last date when it was finally completed. It is highly unlikely that we may run across another halo within the next few years, but I have my priorities to warn you beforehand, the halos cannot be left unattended and in the wrong hands.

Which is why I am here to foretell you of the risks, the halos were constructed to research and develop a means to destroy the flood, a parasitic entity that consumed entire civilisations and planets. The UCA and the UNSC have both formed their own protocols in dealing with the halos.

The UCA asks that all halos to be reported and if need be in case of outbreak of flood, destroyed. Not one flood spore is allowed to live, and those who ignore that protocol will be court-martialled and then executed, the flood is not of a simple entity it has to be removed.

The UNSC have nearly the same protocols and dictations of actions, the only difference being an immediate call for the destruction through Nova Bombs.

The other purpose for me telling you of what to do is the fact that we do not yet have a means to immunise other races from the flood, the cure can only function for human, which means that if your forces are infected, we will exercise the right to eliminate you and any of your people that show even the remote chance of infection or even symptoms." Vincent said grimly.

"That's understandable inheritor; we will take your advice." Tevos said.

"Advice, he had just threatened us with military action, for the fact of a minor issue?"

Valern hissed.

"That minor issue happens to be the same one that caused the destruction of three ships, two research facilities and a planet? How can you ignore the facts councillor, even you know of what happened during the war, the Warden System was off limits, and your people allowed a fleet to enter and research the flood? The UNSC and UCA along with its allies would have destroyed every planet in range of those vessels, if it hadn't been for the brave men of the black ops division alpha, councillor."

Valern shut up immediately, even he couldn't deny the reports from the ruins of Noveria or the many ships, the flood had managed to break through every defence they could place.

"Well, then that was as much as I was here to talk about, that and the fact that there is still a coming danger."

"What danger might that be inheritor?" Maelon asked.

"The UCA has been accepted as a neutral power as from what I have read from the planned topic, and that you have already made concessions to begin this. The UNSC and Covenant will not be part to the greater galaxy, as they only restrict themselves to Nova Stratus and the alliance space regions.

Though there's the reality that humanity colonising in the Exodus system and the Traverse is not going to be welcomed."

"Yes, the batarian homogeny is not too pleased with recent events, they had been planning to colonise the regions set in place for the UCA, and they continue to file complaints that the colonies belong to them as their interest."

The rest of the day was spent on their political and social to economic issues and debates, there was little else to say.

XXXXX

The week passed in what seemed like only a few minutes, the UCAF Aspire had been prepped once more and began its launch into space, it was heading to the citadel once more, though with a bounty of knowledge for the delegates, there was a new atmosphere and one that may change things forever.

XXXXX

(Here's what I have been planning for months!)

UCAF Retribution of Faith

10 years after FCW and Revelation

Location Tiberius Prime, orbit

"Carol, is this it?"

"Yes Admiral Duran…"

"It's Halo."


	29. Chapter 23

CH23

Eta Halo- installation 07

XXXXX

(Great news guys, I am officially quitting all my writing for approximately 5-6 months and I may not even be back after that.)

Well it was fun while it lasted, and I do hope to write to all of you again in the future, I will be still posting a handful of things, and I might finish adding all the new stuff before I leave. To all I say, have a nice day!

BTW There's one last thing I will give to all my readers, go to the new series: Halo Origins: Path to Salvation and it will give you all the need to know, and also because I need to do a rewrite for some of the major stories I have.

Revelations: RW

Halo's Call: RW

Fate is never set: RW

Here's our time jump-

XXXXX

2555-December- UCAF and UNSC along with the New Covenant finalise an agreement; all members of these powers were to be independent in their own right. Though a shaky start, the council accepted terms and allowed the UCAF to colonise a few systems within the traverse and into some sectors of space.

2556-January- UCAF begins full scale colonisation efforts into the Attican Traverse and neighbouring systems. The UCAF in colonising are confronted by Batarian colonisation fleets in the Elysium- UCAF (Elysian) system.

Three days after initial confrontation, an armed fleet of ships appeared over Elysian and demanded that the UCAF depart from the region, UCAF defenders intervened and stood off on the opposing fleet.

Conflict erupts from Batarian Homogeny, the UCAF arrive in force and defeat the Batarian forces within the region, a plea is then sent to the council to remove the UCAF, this was later denied.

February- Thom's 7th birthday-

The UCAF and Covenant begin to reinforce colonies along their borders; the council asks the UCAF to stand down major military forces and bring to question why the UCAF is taking said actions. The UCAF reminded the council that their policy on security had always been up to such standards and would not change.

March-

Quarians begin development plans for new AI, the council takes note of the situation and places in their own request, UCAF unsure of action.

Rey-0159 moves out from Thessia to his home on Calista, he was awarded the POW award for longest recorded capture in enemy hands.

April-

Omega- Aria T'loak meets with new colonial arrivals from UCA, the UCA takes control of impoverished regions on Omega, a foot hold on some terms. Aria plans to remove said threat, though fails to accomplish set goals.

August-

Civil war in the Terminus systems, the UCAF border colonies of Holi and Magne near Omega fall under attack from pirates, the UCAF forces begins a major assault against pirates in region.

December-

UCAF and Terminus conflict draws to a close, the UCAF victorious in conflict, Omega still in turmoil with UCAF, Aria calls her forces back.

2556-

January-

Turians uncover unknown ruins at a colony near Tyr, the ruins identified as Forerunner, though unable to find anything significant, they uncover a detailed schematic of set destinations in a small wreckage of the ancient facility.

UCAF colonial fleet begins integration with quarians, the quarian union calls upon the UCAF to aid in colonising efforts in nearby systems, one colony in the Traverse and many in Nova Stratus.

Citadel Council demands a reaffirming to quarian presence in the Traverse and asks for a recall of any set or planned colonies.

February- Thom's 8th birthday

UCAF requests that colonies set for quarians are under the UCAF jurisdiction and were part of colony treaty in affirmation to demands in 2554.

Turians locate another facility in regions near Thessia, though was later discovered by asari, turian excavations locate only one data store, though heavily encrypted for UCAF designs.

Liara T'soni is awarded the Nobel Prize for recent discovery in forerunner archives; the UCA awards her with the first non-human achievement that has aided humanity. Forerunner Trans-light teleportation for long range deployment is achieved.

July-

Salarian scientist Mordin Solus discovers a means of extending the salarian life span; he begins an experimental prototype on himself. Test proved to be successful and he soon finds that he can only live another 50 years, however further improvement is needed on gene testing.

Turian hierarchy begins total excavation of forerunner archives, and manages only to locate another facility, this time near Praxus Delta. Saren Arterius is sent along with a special task force.

August –

UCAF Aspire is sent to investigate on unknown reports of activity near Praxus, they encounter turian fleet led by Saren Arterius, and commander of the Aspire was David Anderson.

September-

UCAF Aspire is engaged in combat with unknown vessels, identified as only geth, though vague on details, Saren's forces are engaged in combat as well, excavation of Site is soon destroyed.

November-

Successful tests on quarian AI, all systems of new AI were completely functional and was declared a success by the UCAF research teams, the new AI sparks controversy in council space, as asari petition for their own.

December-

UCAF records are finally completed, and the UCAF begin full calculation of new military structure and force.

25,000 Spartans- ranged from IV – V

150,000,000 military personnel in active profile

85,000,000 in non-active

Naval capabilities-

19- Dreadnought class under production

Dreadnoughts are ships that range the sizes of 5-9km long and possess the highest amounts of fire power and resources

850- Frigates

550m-750m Medium to Assault class

650- Destroyer class

600m-850m Assault to Defender class

420- Cruiser class

1,250m-2,400m Assault to Heavy class

450 Carriers

2,500m-5,000m Troop carriers- Supply

(Each class has 3-5 different types; I need time to get all these types corrected in a while so wait please.)

The UCAF represented the majority of the UNSC and humanities military capabilities in the galaxy.

XXXXX

2559

January-

Unknown manifesto of Cerberus is released to the galaxy; Jack- Illusive Man- declares that the human race is to rise as a greater power, his own declaration quote:

"…we as humanity are chosen for greatness, we have reached the pinnacle, the apex, the crossroads of revelation, where we as humanity must decide our destiny our fates, the future…"

UNSC and UCAF command are kept on alert to known threats and future actions of the Cerberus Organisation; ONI command begins Spartan HK teams to locate Cerberus.

XXXXX

2560

June-

Asari AI project is authorised, under council supervision the project proceeds, the UCAF takes all security measures to ensure safety of project sample.

July-

Asari AI is completed, Avina is born, and council approval is passed as to accepting the AI at the Citadel, the UCAF request for construction of AI hub on Citadel to secure AI.

August-

AI hub is constructed at UCAF Academy on Citadel, the UCAF expand facilities to provide necessary space for hub.

(The Academy is actually part of the embassy on the Citadel- I'll explain later in Ascension Rewrite)

XXXXX

2565

January-

Commander of Crusader Company 5 Karl Norha leads different chapters along with the elements of the Liberators and Vindicator Division to the event, he and others called in for an emergency situation in the Tiberius Prime sector.

Alpha Protocol is initiated- last transmission from UCAF Fleet Faith and Retribution-

"…Halo…"

XXXXX

Few and None-

"Admiral Duran, its halo, there's no doubt about it, the schematics from my records say the exact same, and I've run the designs through my database. The installation is number 07; the region is heavily submerged in ionic and neutron emissions that might be why this facility was never detected by Reverence." Carol stated.

The black haired AI floated in her tank idly looking out into space, her figure only the size of the average human's hand, the woman was based on Haley and looked almost identical.

Duran stood right beside her, he looked more than a decade older that was no surprise considering it had been a decade since the wars. Though in his opinion a decade simply passed in months and days, it hadn't felt like a year, but here he was 10 years later.

His grey hair still ever greying, his mind still sharp, seasoned, wise, and yet tired; he never thought that the UCAF would ever have to encounter another Halo since the Covenant war.

"Carol, I need to know, did we lose them?"

"I think we both know that answer, sir."

"How did…"

"They manage to get here first? Simple, the calculations were off by more than a few light years, and the fact that the geth suddenly got involved, turians didn't plan on them appearing."

"Is the turian fleet on the ground?"

"No they're engaged in fleet action in orbit, I should say we're fortunate." Carol said walking out of her holo tank into full size to a computer.

"From what I can tell, there are about thirty ships in orbit, five dreadnoughts, rest are a mix of cruisers and frigates, the turians are still trying to compensate for the fact that they're outnumbered."

"Can we land to support the turians?"

"Yes, but the fleet action is too heavy, whatever they managed to land is bogged down, and the geth are practically swarming over their position. We can only provide when we deploy."

"Where can we land?"

"The main force is preparing to land at the cartographer, the region has the least amount of concentrated fighting, the installation will recognise us as reclaimers, so we shouldn't be too worried, and we just need to locate the monitor."

"Good, send down the Aspire, tell Fred and Karl they need to secure all critical positions from enemy hands."

Duran watched his fleet approach the installation, the turians fleet being slowly decimated in the heavy ship to ship warfare.

The council forces were already on approach, and the installation needed to be destroyed or purged, the UCAF had the protocol to rely on, and if the flood broke out, the installation needed to be destroyed.

XXXXX

Outpost- 01

Nihlus ran between the open doors of the forerunner structure, pulse fire pocked the corridor, he breathed hard as the doors auto sealed, Nihlus had been fighting for nearly two days, and the geth took the fleet by surprise and forced them to close quarters.

The geth began landing to the northern and western regions, approximately 1/4th of the ground forces had already been overwhelmed, the geth had been watching them and analysed a means of defeating them.

Now with their tactics in place the geth managed to crush the turians in sheer numbers, the battlefield at this point was mostly geth, marching on towards his position, most of the others in his squad were either dead or… dead.

Nihlus picked himself from the floor and observed his surroundings, he was now in the structure the science team had gone into the day before the attack, they never were heard from again, and that was why this place was abandoned.

"So much for staying out of danger…" He said tiredly.

Hefting his assault rifled, the MA7C was his own, the rifle was actually a trophy he earned from a friend, he was happy to have something this useful at his side, the mass accelerator rifle changed to incendiary rounds from the selection reticule.

Nihlus carefully negated his way through the dark hallways, not even noticing the blue smear of blood where he had landed.

"Leave this place."

XXXXX

The Aspire had arrived in orbit; the rest of the fleet was to engage the geth while the Aspire sent down the strike teams through the teleportation grid.

Karl thawed from his cryo tube; he sat up to face Fred.

"Morning, looks like we're needed on the ground, come on." He said handing him a pistol.

Karl took the pistol, he remembered that the Alpha protocol was initiated in his sleep; the neural network was picking up all the details that were left out in his sleep.

"So, halo, I never thought that we'd ever see one." He chuckled.

"You should have thought better. The galaxy likes to prove us wrong, hurry up, I hear that Rtas is addressing his strike team, we need to get to ground ASAP."

Karl moved out of the cryo tube, his blue armour still functioning from the years of service, the crusader MKVII had been his favoured suit, even when Kelly disapproved, he still wondered if his son Jon was still at the academy.

It had been years since he had seen Kelly, or his son, it was a wonder that the galaxy had to throw him to the rest of the universe.

"Let's get going."

XXXXX

Melissa prepped her Shadowsword, the advanced stealth and assault fighter was amazing, the newest generation in the UCAF fighter corps. Heading inside the fighter she was greeted by Michi.

"So, looks like we get to finally see some action, been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has, come on let's get this bird off the ground, Jack and Luke are going to need me to save their arses aren't they?" She said starting the fighter.

Not far from the fighter the many pelicans and fighters prepared for the planetary strike, it was to be a fast run, the geth were gaining ground and the UCAF couldn't allow the flood to be released, though with the turians here, it was a good chance they weren't informed by their councillor.

That meant that the chances of flood being loose already were a possibility.

XXXXX

Jack and Luke were both ranked higher than before, Jack being a major and Luke being a commander, the years of service worked to both their advantages. The UCAF had been in desperate need of new troops and experienced officers.

Cameron was with them, though only being ranked as a lieutenant commander, he was also on the way up for promotion. Cameron served alongside the brothers and the UCAF since the first contact war.

The teams were prepped and ready for launch.

XXXXX

Rtas along with his and Unarra spec ops forces were geared and ready to go; the Spartans that were present at the short briefing had received similar orders alongside the elites. The critical data stores had to be swiped, the geth presence was far larger than what was anticipated, and the chances of flood being loose was too risky, even with vaccinations for the parasite.

Karl and Fred had both been present for the meeting, they knew as much as Rtas or the others that the halo needed to be destroyed or captured, but with their new orders, it was simply destroy the installation if it could not be held, which was the situation right now.

"Rtas, you said that these rings were going to be the death of you." Karl jested.

"Alas they are these menacing rings have brought me nothing but constant challenge, which I never back down from." The elite replied humorously.

"Well if pleasantries are over, we should really get to work." Fred said hefting a shoulder rocket.

As they walked through the black and steel grey metal hallways of the Aspire, Karl asked.

"So is there any actual Intel or is this BS command gave us about the ring true?"

"It's not the whole story, command had actually forgotten to mention that the geth have already taken over the southern quarter of the ring, the turians are scattered amongst the landscape and are being systematically annihilated." Fred replied coldly.

"Well, at least the geth don't plan on us arriving any time soon." Karl attempted to lighten the mood.

"No, they are waiting, that's why they have massive guns emplaced at each point along the ring they control, the AA batteries and these strange new platforms, the geth have made some advancement in order to counter us."

The briefing continued until they launched.

XXXXX

LZ- Cartographer

Jack and Luke hit the ground hard and fast, their pods popped open and they stepped out. Scanning left and right, the two made sure the beach head was clear. Jack looked about as the remaining troops landed, their Spartan commanders behind, while he and Luke took to the front.

Cameron hefted a LMG and plenty of ammunition, the troops trailed behind, with their rifles aimed at anything that might be hostile. They were soon joined by the elites who took the higher ground and began spreading about.

"All units accounted for, blue team and white will proceed to the cartographer, the rest of you need to hold out for any approaching enemy forces." Karl ordered.

"Yes sir."

Karl took the main marauder squad with him and Fred, Linda was on a pelican inbound with air support. While Mark and Ash were on vehicles, they were yet to drop in, unless there were hunters.

Once the team arrived at the entrance they noted Rtas and his teams holding position.

"Hold your fire; we're coming on you left." Karl said.

"Acknowledged Spartans, hurry, the geth shall be here soon." Rtas replied.

When they arrived, they noticed that the elites had done all they could to hold ground, four shade turrets and multiple sniper nests scanned the area. There were also two bond brothers of hunters and more than one specialist grunt squads with fuel rods.

"Hurry, the engineers say they have managed to access the lower hold of the base, hurry while you can still get inside." Rtas said.

"Okay, Jack you and your marines will tail us in, guard the main chamber when we get there remember, the engineers must survive to get us in." Fred ordered.

"Yes sir, we'll do what we can." Jack said hefting his BR.

They took to the lower levels, down through the angled and straight cut rooms and chambers; they headed down through to the cartographer of the ring, and where the rest of their answers lay.

XXXXX

Nihlus ended up in the deep recesses of the catacombs, unsure of where he was headed, he managed to mark his positions and make sure that he did not lose sight of where he was heading. But the deeper he got, the more it concerned him that there was more than just empty halls here.

He managed to finally reach a room with an elevator, he tapped a few things into his Omni-tool and the lift began to move, he headed upwards to the higher level, unsure of what to expect, he made sure his rifle was still active and watched as he arrived in another empty lift chamber.

Making his way about, he checked the lobby where his lift had stopped, making sure that nothing was following him, he arrived at a large ante chamber, and then headed down, there he was faced with a single door, checking around he found that there was nothing else.

His gut feeling was that there was something odd, and he might regret it very soon, he hit his Omni-tool and opened the doorway. He walked in and closed the door behind him, once ensuring that he hadn't walked into an open trap, he was greeted by the sight of a glowing console and a large holographic display screen.

He tapped in a link, or what he assumed was a link, and checked for who might still be alive to receive his call for help.

He just didn't notice the black armoured figure with the No.6 printed and smudged, and the cold and forgotten eyes of Joseph of black team.

(Dun, dun, dun, he was corrupted! Told you guys there was more to this, and more yet to come.)

XXXXX

Saren watched with heated anger at the Alliance, their forces only entering when they were being clobbered by the geth.

He had managed to survive the battle only to end up on the front lines, with the remainder of his troops; they stemmed the tide of geth assaulting their position and made sure that the ships still had enough support to begin evacuation soon.

He walked through to hi console and attempted to contact the council.

"Sir, the position is lost, and the alliance Special Forces have arrived to deal with this, it's outside my control now sir." He addressed Valern.

"Damn them, did you managed to at least obtain any records?"

"Yes sir, I'm transmitting them now."

"Good, hurry and get yourselves out of there before things get worse."

'How much worse could it possibly get?' The spectre thought.

"Sir, enemy Dreadnought is here!" A marine yelled.

Saren looked about, his mind aching as he took sight of the massive dreadnought landing it's claw like legs into the earth and sending the troops backing. He only watched as the leg suddenly slammed down, and sent him and his fellow turians onto the ground.

And then he lost consciousness.

XXXXX

The team travelled through the long winding corridors of Halo, they reached their primary objective, the cartographer. Karl and Fred were both beginning the main activation sequence while the marines waited outside.

"Tanya, you there?" Karl asked.

The AI materialised on the palm of his hand.

"I'm here Karl."

"Can you get a lock on the position of the control centre, and if possible the location of the Monitor?" He asked.

"Attempting, located, the Monitor is within the containment zone, he's trying to re coordinate the defences to defend the main facilities from attack by the geth. He is going on his standard search parameters for us soon, but we need to get moving." She replied.

"Understood…" He tapped his tactical and contacted the fleet.

"Admiral we've located the target and are moving to plant initiation sequence of the Nova at the core, however the monitor is cut off, we're going by standard procedures on this, if the monitor doesn't reach us then we're out."

"Understood Commander, keep your head cool, once all objectives have been achieved then get clear, from what we can tell there's a large dreadnought class headed in your direction."

"Acknowledged, over and out fleet."

Karl and Fred turned about with Rtas, but they were suddenly under fire, a geth infiltration team had broken past and were attacking them in the hall. Jack, Luke and Cameron were barely holding the sheer numbers back.

"Sir, they've cut us off, we're going to need another way around."

"This is team seven; we're cut off, any support?" Karl yelled.

It was then they heard a low humming noise, and then the lights from a gunship as it began to fire into the geth, the large sky-breaker assault gunship mowed the numbers down, then it opened its side entrances.

"Well look who's here, its Melissa!" Jack yelled.

"Yeah, and if you don't get your asses in here I'm leaving you behind, I had to get back to base just to make sure that this bird could still fly." She replied.

They received cover fire from the auto turrets and by Michi who was in command of the defences, the AI got everyone aboard and sealed the doors behind, then they descended into the deeper network of the ring.

"Where did you come from?" Karl asked.

"Base, the place got hit hard, Aspire ordered me down as soon as we got everyone clear, the geth are getting frantic to stop us and I think they know what we're here for." Melissa said grimly.

Fred then said. "All the more reason to get rid of this damned thing, get us to the main loading zone, we're going to have to hurry, once the geth know about where the core is, it's going to be a hell hole to reach."

"Understood."

XXXXX

Nihlus felt as though his head was smacked in by a krogan biotic punch, his head ached as he stood or tried, he could smell the reek of the dead nearby, he knew that he must have been attacked and taken to some place he didn't want to be.

"Ugh, what by the spirits got to me?"

A voice of distinct hollowness replied.

"The spirit of death…"

He looked up in the darkness to see an armoured figure, it was a Spartan, but this was off, it was a Spartan but his armour was compromised, it had leaking fluids in one place, and had been mutilated in other places.

Suddenly the events of Noveria suddenly made sense, this was an infected Spartan, and not only that, the armour design matched the missing Spartan, Joseph.

"By the gods, what happened to you?"

"I have been gifted, by the old one, but I have also been cursed, I cannot control all my motions, but I know of you, the spectre Nihlus on the mission on Anomia, all those years ago. You must take this, get it to no one, or it shall bring the end." The disorientated figure said.

He handed a small silver and green object, it was crafted beautifully, and it looked forerunner in origins.

"This is the key, to stopping the old ones, and their return, please, never let it out of your sight, keep it safe, keep all of them safe, or we shall all pay the price." The figure said walking in the opposite direction.

"Wait where are you going?"

"To do my duty, for my duty must end now, good luck, there's a transport nearby, get to the seventh fleet and escape." Joseph said lastly before vanishing.

Nihlus held the object in his hand, wondering what had just been unleashed upon the universe; he couldn't believe what was to happen, and what was left to come.

XXXXX

The gunship made it's landing at the core, the massive fusion pulse of plasma constantly firing from its top, here the bomb was to be detonated, the team was setting up as the bomb was delivered, Karl and Fred along with the rest of Spartan team legacy were here to finish the preparations for the detonation.

The large building they were seated upon was over viewing the sheer scale of the battle below, the turians and the geth and the flood, all were to be removed in order to save the rest. The Spartans knew of sacrifice and this was one they had to make.

At that moment there was a loud chime as the monitor appeared.

"Greetings I am Reverent Guardian, welcome reclaimers, I must advise that your device must be deactivated in order to stop the destruction of this installation."

"Well sorry to hear that, but you must listen, under protocol 2212-4434, the facility has been compromised and all data has been retrieved by our ships in orbit, we have also discovered a cure years ago, the Halo's are necessary."

The monitor looked in surprise.

"There has been a cure?"

"Yes, that's why the installation cannot be allowed to exist, or be activated, the flood is loose and the geth are invading, you need to pull all defences into buying us time."

The monitor looked at him, his logic came through and he acknowledged, as much it was painful.

"Very well, I shall help defend this location."

"Good, how long till its armed?" He called to Jack.

"Another 10 minutes, give or take a few seconds for the arming codes."

"We're on schedule then, we better…"

"BOOM"

The ground near Karl detonated, he was thrown back as a large armoured figure appeared, it was Spartan in shape, but it was changed, altered, and wreaked of death.

"So, brother it has been to long hasn't it?" The intertwined voice said.

"You're Joseph of black team, the last survivor of the Warden incident." Karl responded.

"Ah yes, the flood now runs through me, but also does the old ones, Sovereign wishes you death." The twisted voice sounded.

Karl drew his sword and his wrist cannon, then more flood appeared, many more. Fred and Rtas along with the defenders got ready behind Karl.

"This is the end Karl, the end of the children of the ascended, for they have fallen with time itself, you only delay the inevitable." Sovereign called.

"Not unless you die first abomination! For the fallen of the young, you shall pay for the loss of my brothers." He yelled.

The two clashed, energy claws and sword blasting away in the middle, the corrupted soldier trying to kick Karl, Karl responded by grabbing the leg and using his external boosters to swing about. The corrupter was slung into the dirt, and he began to pummel.

But then Joseph grabbed his fist and lodged his leg into his stomach and tossed him high and landed him on the earth. Then twisting up, Joseph tried to swing a decapitating blow where Karl's head was. The rest of the team battled endlessly against the waves of the flood, plasma and fire cutting through all.

Karl brought his sword down and hacked off one arm, but Joseph responded with striking his thigh, they both went down, they staggered backwards. Getting within 20 feet, they charged, Karl and Joseph clashed, the weapons drawn.

It took moments for Karl's chest to start bleeding, however, Joseph collapsed onto his knees. Karl swung about and decapitated the fallen Spartan, he then proceeded to removing the neural lace that had kept the Spartan's sanity from becoming completely overrun, however found that it was missing.

He didn't have enough time to go thinking, the bomb was ready, he ran as fast as he could, the others gathered and waiting.

"Sir, hurry." Jack yelled.

He leapt unto the gunship, they then made their escape, and the marines covered him as he landed.

"Melissa, get us out of here." Luke yelled.

The gunship jerked away from the NOVA, the Aspire was just in sight, and once landing hard they exited. Karl raced to the bridge, along with Fred and the others, Tanya transferred out of his head, and she then alerted them.

"Sir unknown on approach, it's over 3km long, oh no, it's charging an energy based weapon, I can't get us loose of its firing range, brace for impact."

The Aspire attempted to flee, however the beam of red light struck the engines, the wounded Aspire tried dodging the other blasts, but the sheer size was hard to out manoeuvre in time.

"Sir, the blasts knocked out aft shields, we're not going to be able to escape the blast in time."

Karl reached the bridge, he saw how bad it was, and he knew that he and the crew weren't going to make their last run in time. He looked to Tanya, and then he said.

"Tanya, under orders of I and I alone, depart from the ship, in thirty seconds we'll use the catapult manoeuvre around the ring, we'll try and sling our way out."

"Sir, that's insane, it won't make it past the blast radius in time."

"I know, but we have to try, you need to tell the fleet of what happened, get going, or this crew and its crew's sacrifice would have been for nothing…"

XXXXX

Nihlus was in the bay of the Few and None, he walked to the bridge where he was greeted by Admiral Duran who welcomed him and apologised for the sacrifices to be made. Nihlus knew better of those sacrifices however.

"Sir the fleet is ready to jump; we have another minute before the blast." Carol reported.

"What about the Aspire?" He asked.

"They are still unable to make it in time… wait they're sending us a message."

Tanya then materialised, she was lying down crying, and she said.

"The Aspire is… is lost."

The Admiral was shocked, he couldn't believe that Karl would order it, the ship was to be left behind.

"Sir, less than 20, shall we jump?"

"Do it."

XXXXX

The Aspire could be seen twisting and turning as it attempted to jump; it ran through the edge and accelerated as the blast began. On board Karl grasped his chair; he knew what was to happen.

"Kelly, I hope that you know I won't be back, tell Jon, I'm sorry."

The crew was washed in the solar rays of a new star.

XXXXX

(I hope you guys loved the cross link to Ascension)

NEXT UP

THE BLTIZ!

Love to all you guys, and thanks for Cameron and all you guys, my best buddies.


	30. Chapter 30

CH30

XXXXX

The Elysian Sun

XXXXX

(For those who wished to know about the mysterious Joseph Black06.)

His head was in pain, his body torn, he didn't know why, but this wasn't like death, it should have been painless, his synaptic responses should have shutdown, he should be dead. But no, this wasn't death, and now that he thought of it, death didn't have sterilised containers for transporting him.

He was in a ship, in someone's ship.

He looked at the cold ceiling, the emptiness they showed, the hums of death, this was no ordinary ship, this place, it was an ancient, a reaper. His flood synapses responded in moments, trying to break free from the container, those bastards, they were here. After the last 15 million years after their defeat, they should have never returned.

But no, they did and they were here to finish what they had started, and they were here to finish the last of the flood and the forerunners. They had to be stopped, his mutating body adjusted under his neural control chip, he began to slowly strengthen, but it was useless.

"Foolish organic stain, you're age has long since ended, the rightful gods of darkness must rule, you're time has already long since ended." A voice said to Joseph.

He roared out, as the flood's own voice and Joseph.  
"Be gone you damned spawn of void, you're nothing compared to the true power of the ancient gods, you are nothing to what I have stood, time and time again, I shall not die."

"Yell all you will pest, you're kind will perish in the end."

"I'll be here to see you try..."

XXXXX

2591

Omega

Afterlife- private room N.o1

It was in this mess of a sprawling city that the most wanted and most hated come to, it was a place of despair, and a place of false hope. Here in this lawless place of anarchy and civil discomfort that the lawless live and rule. It was a well-known fact though that Omega was controlled by Aria T'Loak, the CEO or Queen, and it was her idea that opposing the UCAF was a foolhardy move, she tried it once before… and it failed on her in a near cataclysmic event.

But now after all these years, there were those who were really believed that they could challenge the UCAF. Aria honestly didn't care, she learnt her lesson, and on top of that, she had a special gift thanks to the alliance, she was gifted with a son, who happened to be a very good son. He was currently watching the events unfold in the room below.

"That's crazy, even with the sheer amount of weapons you're suggesting, there's not a chance in hell that we'd break through the UCAF defences at Elysium." A turian merc said in absolute anger.

"That's why we have the Blue Suns to deal with the ODPs; the UCAF can't deal as much damage to the fleet if we disable the defence network. After that it's a cake walk, the main fleet could land in the capital with ease; Haven's Gate would fall easily. And to top that off our little combined efforts, our specialists have reported that they're ready when we do complete the primary goal." Elanos said adamantly.

"And who might these be?" A Batarian asked.

"The best we could possible get." He replied with a smirk his eyes glowing ever so warmly like as his kind did.

"Well they better do their damned jobs, if someone screws up then this is on your head." Warlord Harek said with a threatening finger.

"So, what are our targets?" An asari eclipse mercenary asked.

"Simple, the Elysium assault is under direction of warlord Harek here, and all those who wished to get into the fight, however we'll have 2 fleets positioned over the Tan system, the quarians have the best tech and medical treatment tech in the galaxy. Not to mention that AI cloning lab, provided by our agent who has detailed how to gain access."

"And what says that we can break this defence over the Tan system?"

"Collectors…"

"What?" All of them said.

"The collectors, they have a massive fleet ready, along with the Yahg, it took months of effort, but we have an army to attack the system, but the main capital of Vannoch is the target." He explained.

"And what says that the collectors would be willing to help us?" A blue suns legionnaire asked.

"**Why would we not?**" A voice boomed nearby from the darkness.

XXXXX

Elysium

The day was going so well, at least for Adrian, he was on academy leave for the rest of the day; he was going to meet with Luke and Chris at the station today. They were heading to the GWS for some R&R, he didn't really like GWS, he was a new field gamer rather than a combat strategist, and he just came up with a suicidal plan and executed it.

He walked through the throng of traffic and people that made up the City of Haven's Gate, he took through the streets as did everyone else did on a daily basis. It took him minutes to travel the tightly packed crowds of people going to and from in this city, he was startled as a sign with the famous Meryl Elena, was coming to the City in the next day or so.

He had no real love of the artist, he was a rock fan, and a minor in pop, he never bothered to pay as much attention since there had been nearly millions of new asari pop singers arrive since the beginning of the UCAF integration into the galaxy. The fad continued on to this day, with so many repetitions of past songs coming up, and that new equestrian chick named Gaga, every guy seemed to think she was a hot psycho though.

He budged by the sign and continued on, there was so much to do, and so little time, well almost… he was a kind of person who usually losses track of time as it goes. He walked through to a large rail system nearby, it had interconnecting lines between the south city and the north, and he jumped on the local one and headed on.

He walked through to the back, this was no better than the rural busses that went around in the more remote colonies, but he was used to taking the local trams. It wasn't long before he was greeted by Luke Ford, and Christopher Carter, they were his friends since joining the academy.

Chris was a dirty blonde haired teenager his own age, and had blue eyes, curly hair, a place complexion and a figure and form about just under 6ft, the same could be said for Luke though he had shorter hair which was more straight cut and he was 6ft1 with glasses. Do not be fooled by the glasses though, Luke once said that they were just for reading, and yet he manages to cap a tin can at over 500 yards with a M6[I] series pistol.

They talked about who they were to meet.  
"Who's going with us?"

"I think there are still Valentino and Christopher N, and Mitchel, either than them, Vashti and Ella." He replied.

They continued to talk as they reached their stop, getting off, they entered the market district, it was here that the group was too meet, and it didn't take long to travel from the tram platform to the market place, there they were taken into the stream of endless people heading the two directions.

Chris and Valentino were waiting at the nearest happy cup, the shops had been around for so long since the wars and even before then, it was interesting that an Asian owned shop that had survived the entire 20th-21st century still even functioned. But then again, this was like trying to stop Microsoft from developing most of the tech of the 21st and 22nd century so, it really wasn't a big surprise.

They found them drinking milk tea with coffee bits. Adrian noticed that there was a whole range of drinks, and that most of the customers happened to be either turian or asari, a handful of salarians and number of UCAF academy students. This place was a hangout for teens of all ages, but it was usually either packed by other races, so that was the reason that they were planning to go to GWS at least they weren't packed to the brim.

"Chris, Tran, we're late." Adrian said as he walked to them.

They looked at him and replied.  
"Fine, just let us get our lunch, its corndog Friday."

"Okay then, we'll meet up at GWS, but make sure you bring in your Nova Tools, Brian almost sconed the crap out of us for that mess last week." Christopher warned.

"Will do corporal…" Chris waved.

They walked out of the shop, Adrian and his friends headed on, going through another 2 blocks they arrived at their favourite shop, GWS, at least that there was something to do. Adrian wondered if he was forgetting something.

XXXXX

(Here's something you'll like…)

Observation post 20

The rumours of the pirates forming an alliance in Terminus systems was no joke, the many organisations had a pretty good idea of what was going on, even the Shadow Broker, and the UCAF. The ONI had a pretty good idea of what was coming as well; however without sufficient evidence, the UCAF was restricted from attacking the Terminus systems by the council.

If they were to give sufficient evidence in time it would take weeks or months, and the situation was already bad, the pirate alliance was already on the move. ONI couldn't make a move, it was going to require a greater effort to deal with these damned pirates, and this meant that it was to bring out those who could do it.

Grayson watched from his position around the main Orbital Elevator, he was on lookout for any activity, he didn't like job, but it was necessary. Once he figured out the timing procedure and the attack, it was only the local marauders and the helldivers left to deal with their enemy. But that meant that the UCAF naval forces would be freed up to counter the main attack.

All points were going straight for the Tan systems, they were the key to all of this, the blitz was a front to devastate the quarians, not to mention to take a number of variable technology given to the small race, once the attack on Elysium began the UCAF would redirect half the fleet to engage the pirates on approach to Tan.

The New Covenant had also picked up on plans to engage and figured that a pre-emptive strike on the Skyllian Verge was necessary, the main bases of operation were being set up there and the UCAF knew it. All intel between the UCAF and the Covenant were exchanged quickly, but there was a problem.

An operative stated in one report that the pirates had a key hacking tool to disable the UCAF defence grid for the ODPs over Elysium, and that meant that there was a leak, a very big leak, but it was impossible for any UCAF member to betray the UCAF, and the fact that all UCAF members had neural cards which interfaced with others, so if someone did leak information the UCAF would ID them before they even knew.

Grayson knew that there had to be a leak within the defence grid, so who would be able to access the information and leave no trace? There were 3 possibilities, an AI, Hacker, or an infiltrator, the first two were impossible as AIs have a first priority to human life, and the best hackers happened to be from the UCAEWDI.

So that left an infiltrator as the prime possibility, but the fact that the intel came from somewhere within the main command deck it was possible that someone was acting as a UCAF member, the neural interface could be fooled if they had the right tech, but it didn't mean it wasn't impossible.

"Sir, the elevator is still active, should we call in M1 to deal with the infiltrator?" He asked.

A calm voice replied.  
"The infiltrator is a command staff officer and yes M1 is already on approach, you are to hold your ground there and continue observation, I want 20 minute updates operative."

"Yes sir."

"Good."

Jack watched from his screen, the halo of fire behind in illuminating his chair, he was sure that this was the only means of ensuring that the UCAF didn't fall under attack again, the pirates didn't realise what role that they were to play was sacrificial. The attack had been predicted for years and even decades in advance, thanks to the forerunners foresight ability, Cerberus, was ready in wait.

It had been 20 years since his initial death, but here he was, alive once more, Jack didn't know how this had been even after so many years, ONI SEC: III recovery of him in deep space, or the fact that his brother had died. He was sure that the reapers were to come to an end, the UCAF was to be ready, mankind had to be ready, and mankind had to hold its own once this war began.

He would remain in the shadows from now on, even though he used to be in the public light as the greatest inspiration to the UCAF marines and so many youths during the war, he was next to no one when it came to war. He smiled as he took another sip from his cup of Anomian Light Ambrosia.

"Miranda, how long have you been standing there?" He asked.

"Long enough to know that you're thinking of something… is it really going to be Elysium?"

"Oriana and Jon are being moved as we speak; the shuttle will arrive in time before the attack, though I'm not sure if the pirates schedule is going to be predictable." He said idly with some concern.

"Just make sure they get home safely, I don't want to lose them, especially Jon."

"He has your eyes."

"That's my business sir."

"My apologies, just remember Miranda, he's going to have to face reality soon enough."

"I know."

"Very well complete your mission and meet with your family if you should, but a word of advice…"

"What?"

"Don't leave it too late, or you'll make the same mistakes as I did."

She left with a nod, and Jack looked at the glowing might of the solar furnace, he wondered why things had happened this way, his train of thoughts were interrupted.

"Jack, you know that what happened wasn't your fault."

"Yeah, but it was my mistake, the damned galaxy may think of who I am now as a hell bent bastard, but the legacy of the Major lives on."

"Like how I lived, you were a hero Jack, don't lose faith of that."

"I know, but to go back now will only confirm what they think I am, the rest of the galaxy would never accept that."

"And mankind will never be supported?"

"Yes, which is why I remain in the illusion of death, like you do."

The holographic image of his long dead brother moved to his side, his eyes un-breaking from their gaze, he knew as much as Jack of what it was like, to have died.

"So Luke, could you keep an eye out for Miranda, she's going to need all the help she can get."

"Sure thing, but tell me something, why the Illusive Man?"

"Because that's what I am, an illusion of a man who died well over his time…"

Jack Mclean looked at his hands, and at his face, his once handsome features faded with time and resurrection, he looked old, probably because he was over 70.

(The secrets of the TIM of my AU story! Jack never died on the Aspire, but I'm not telling you how he survived yet.)

XXXXX

Ellen Shepard took to her left on the Fortunes Fate, she headed down to the lower holds of the massive carrier transport inbound to Elysium, she was sure to meet with Captain Anderson on that new promotion to join the UCAF N7 Helldivers.

It was great day for her, it was as if nothing could actually go wrong, she was sure that she'd get the position, she was the top in her Naval Spec Ops warfare team, if this happened then she was granted a shoe in for the UCAF high commission in the next major operation.

She watched the planet come closer as the shuttle descended, she didn't speak of it, but she had a cousin on the planet, he was supposed to be getting ready for his trip to Harvest in the next month, but that was just him and the academy. In truth, the young teenager was a real pain in the neck to nail and that was what made him so flexible in a situation.

She laughed at the thought, a cousin like him could cause havoc on an epic scale if he really wanted to. She just watched as the shuttle hit the upper atmosphere, she'd land in the capital in 30 minutes.

XXXXX

GWS

Adrian watched his friends playing with their models of different armies yelling over rules and having their usual bout of excitement, he never really cared about what they did, and this was their little haven from the rest of the world.

He checked over his Nova tool and scrolled through the list of messages and items of things that did or didn't concern him, he flicked through one message, and it was a UCAF High Com directive…

'A UCAF HIGH COM Directive, on a planet where military reserves are highest?' The message didn't really make much sense; the directives were only used in the cases of extreme caution or danger.

Adrian never told anyone about his special commissioned Nova tool given to him by his aunt Kelly; she had warned him to keep an eye out for anything and told him how to work the specialist tool. He used the tool to hack past many security barriers and mainframes when he needed to; it's served as his most needed tool in the face of danger or adventure.

He didn't let the others see, but he began to hack the directive message from HIGH COM, it took a few minutes but he managed to get through.  
/CODE-ALPHA-ALERT/

HIGH COM- DIRECTIVE PROXY IN EFFECT

From: Director James Vance

At 0200 yesterday, the UCAF ONI teams on Omega have confirmed incoming attacks from pirate forces within the Terminus systems, they will be on approach in the next 12 hours, you have immediate priorities to get all civilians to fallout shelters and bunkers, period.

UCAF Defensive flotilla 2-6 will arrive in 15 hours, till then all troops from auxiliaries of the Marauders include the academy marines, they will be needed for defence across the city. Directive now is in effect in 3 hours of this message…

/END TRANSMISSION/

Adrian looked at the message like it was flood spore, the whole system, the pirates were on their way here, he looked to his friends and to the peaceful environment that was Elysium's capital, this whole place was going to become a wreck, ruins, and death.

"Adrian, you alright?" Chris asked,

"Chris, we need to get back the barracks, and I think we should alert the others."

[T-Minus 2 hours]

XXXXX

Hara worked on the lower defence grid of the network, she was trying or should be trying to repair it, but her orders were clear, she needed to cripple the network, and of course that name wasn't hers. Hers was Eletha, the saboteur; she was tasked with downing the entire UCAF defence grid for the invasion forces to begin their approach.

It took her minutes to complete the EMP to go, it was a small one, but it was in the critical fusion junction to the defence grid, once it goes down, the UCAF fleet will be on their own. Once she cleared the tools away she walked away as if nothing had happened.

She was an asari infiltrator with modified figure, she was human by every aspect, no one could say if she was asari or not, and that was the beauty to her modification. She would get paid very soon thanks to her efforts, but not until the first landing forces secure the city.

She walked down to elevators and waited as it opened. She paused as a handgun was suddenly pointed to her forehead; she had little time as the pistol fired. In her last moments the long black haired woman in combat tights looked at her as she fell.

"Damn, too late."

Miranda walked from the lift, 4 security officers securing the dead body that was on the floor with purple blood pooling, she knew that there was no way that any UCAF personnel or citizen that would willingly allow for such things to happen. She used an ONI security code to commander the troops to help her, but she didn't need an indicator to know that they would have done so anyway.

"Marine, where was this person supposed to be?" She asked a trooper.

"She was scheduled for a routine maintenance at junction 30-99-12."

"Take me there." She ordered.

The trooper led her down the hallway, if she made it in time the UCAF would be able to still hold against the attack that was going to be launched, she just hoped that she wasn't too late, for the sake of Oriana and Jon.

By the time they reached the junction they found that it was open, and clearly it had been tampered with, she opened it to find an EMP reciprocator integrated into the fusion conduits. If the pulse were to go off the whole network would go down, but she had no idea how much time was left.

Carefully working away, the EMP was disabled and she removed it by a wave of her adept powers, she assumed that that was all there was on the station, she was wrong. When the timer hit zero, that wasn't the only junction to go down, 30 others had been wired with the same charges.

She watched in horror as the whole network went down, only the basic energy plating and kinetic barriers would be active, the whole planet was now an open target.

XXXXX

[T-minus 1 hour]

When Shepard arrived at the barracks she had to navigate her way through the many corridors of the whole facility, she walked on unhindered as she was to meet with admiral Halos. It took about 5 minutes as she rounded the last corner, but she was almost knocked over by a group of teenagers, they were in a rush.

"Hey kids watch it." She yelled.

"Sorry, ma'am, we're headed to primary defence in 5 minutes." One replied.

"Geez rookies…" She mumbled.

She stepped into the office to be suddenly met with a man sitting down with a grim look in his eyes; he was watching the reports from the OPDs and the PDF. He knew that this situation was bad, he turned to face her, as Shepard was oblivious to the facts, she asked.

"Sir, has something happened?"

"You know it, the UCAF defence forces report that 30 main junctions had just been lost across the planetary shields, all primary energy field reflectors are down, as of 20 minutes ago."

"What?"

"I just received a report from HIGH COM of this planned attack, the pirates of the Terminus systems are on full approach to Elysium." He replied.

"Dear forerunners, that's…."

"…unbelievable? Hah, the UCAF had never imagined that the damned pirates would be the ones to launch something like this, it's too bold. And too well coordinated, the pirates have even reports of new weapons, particle emitters and some more serious firepower."

"What are your orders?"

"You are to aid in the defence of the city, get to level 20 and meet with the 81st shock troopers, they're the best I can give you, as of now, all UCAF military participants are to be activated."

"Sir that's over 8 million on the planet alone, with an added 16 million in auxiliaries from the civilian population."

"Which is why it's our best option, if they come, they'll face us on the ground, the 2-6th flotillas are not arriving for at least another 12 hours, till then, we're on our own."

"What about civilians?"

"All non-combatants are heading to civilian bombs shelters and emergency shielding centres, the fleets have ordered all ships away, the covenant 33rd recon and patrol is inbound in 6 hours."

"What are we to expect sir?"

"A lot of pirates, and a lot of fire, we've reports of over 900 ships headed straight for Elysium."

XXXXX

The squad rushed through the corridors without pausing; they even bumped into a superior officer along the way, only Christopher apologised as they ran by. Adrian swore he knew that woman, but he hadn't been so sure, she looked like his cousin, but the Shepard family was usually restricted to the Nova Stratus regions, except for those in the military.

He ran down to the barracks and into the open weapons lockers, they began to arm up, Adrian explained as they took the military tram back to the academy of what was happening. In about another 30 minutes the alarms would send the entire population into hiding as the pirates would begin their attack.

All naval vessels had been sent away to clear a path for all UCAF defenders, the battle was going to be rough, there was only 150 ships in orbit over the planet, and with 900 coming to face them, it wasn't going to be a pretty sight, he prayed that help arrived and soon.

"Where do we go?" Tran asked.

"Outside, the academy is going to be the first place they'd strike, we're going to bunker hill, hold ground at the entrance way, if worse comes to worse, get into the streets and fight them urban to urban." He replied.

"Yes sir." They all said as they moved.

XXXXX

In Orbit

The UCAF fleet waited another 30 minutes in their standard defence formation, the damned pirates had taken the system by surprise, the covenant had arrived to bolster the 150 ships to 175, it still seemed in adequate to deal with the sheer numbers, but if anything the pirates were going to have a nightmare breaching the defences.

That was what the UCAF expected them to do, the fleet going in at head to her, but there was one problem, the planning, the battle commenced as 950 ships suddenly appeared. The added 50 were not of any known matching designed vessels, which meant that they were one thing… collectors.

"Sir, we've picked up a number of energy signatures a lot of them." Icarus said to Halos.

"Put the Methuselah to engage when in range then, get the corvettes for counter measures on those targets."

"But sir, those aren't missiles; they're fighter drones, hundreds of them." Icarus stated.

"Damn, call in the MSV squads and the VFs, were going to go for field of fire, make sure that they don't get caught in our volleys." He ordered.

"Yes sir, all units are being launched and alerted."

The skies above the planet was suddenly ignited in the fires of light, the endless exchange of fire and explosions making the heavens as though they were lit by fireworks. On the ground the marines waited, they prepared and held on until they made their last stand.

The pirates maybe coming, but so were the collectors, the UCAF had heard of them, and knew how to prepare for their approach.

But in the Tan systems the quarians were unrespecting of the dangers soon to come.

XXXXX

Anderson watched the screens over his console suddenly ignite with warning; he stood up and watched as the Ithaca suddenly was shaken by enemy fire. The skies were filled with incoming ships, he was horrified, where they had come from was terrifying, this meant…

The Tan systems were under attack!

XXXXX

Part 1 done!

I do hope that you've all enjoyed my works, as of next week, I shall be back, and this story as it's end, please read on from Ascension to know of what happens in the future, I've also got the next spin off for Fate is Never Set with Endless Fates, coming next month.

There's also a Halo/WH40 crossover, a new one, not the one with the AU universe, it's with a fleet ending up in the WH universe, though they might not be overpowered.

I'm going back over Halo/BSG next week, I do hope those waiting are ready when it comes out, but I might be caught up dealing with a lot of work, so don't expect it too soon.

I've got exams for the next 3 days so CYA


	31. Chapter 31

CH31

XXXXX

I'm getting to old for this shit…

(Thank you lethal weapon)

XXXXX

(Here's to the near end people, it's coming to a close real soon, and more will be revealed for the Ascension and new Redemption ME/Halo addition for my series. It won't be the same though, love to all those who've stayed loyal to reading this and I do hope you have enjoyed this, near the last chapter.)

XXXXX

2594- (A little sneak peak of the ME2/Halo: Age of Reclamation)

The star light from above shone on the surface of Sierra Eta, this world was supposed to have been a useless rock, which it was, but there was something of significance here. In the frozen depths, a hull remained intact, it had long sharp blocky edges and looked clearly utilitarian in design, it was the UCAF Normandy SR-1, its final resting place after the surprise attack above the planet.

Inside the remaining crew went about planning to go on a search and rescue of their lost comrades, the ship had taken a beating, but the Spartans hadn't. Jovi the combat specialist worked round the clock to get the ship up to habitable standards, and Alexis used her forerunner adept powers to psychically move objects, Ian and Selena tended to the crew, and Dominic went about getting the gear prepped for his trip through the snow, they were all ready, even Tanya, who had repaired her android shell.

"We better get moving, hopefully if Kale and Shepard managed to get to the HEVs they'll only have 3 days' worth of oxygen left, that's assuming that they made it to the pods." Chakwas said.

"So, where should we start looking?" Tanya asked.

"They have beacons. We need to scour the area the last time the beacons were heard, and we should find them, if not we're going to call in for a large fleet to deal with it." Jovi replied.

"Let's get to work then." Unarra Moremorre said.

They left the side docking hatch, the rear was no longer functional due to the damage, they walked from the ice shelf to where ever they could find a foothold, and they marked the areas with sonic pulses to map the further regions of the frozen wasteland. This place was nothing more than dead, and yet peaceful, and the fact that it was also the last place the crew expected to end up.

The attack made by the collectors had been unexpected; they had come out of slip-space and were ambushed as soon as they dropped out. The shields were compromised before they could raise them, and it left the ship vulnerable to the punishment it took, the Normandy made it as far as it did before having to give up.

Shepard was in the engine room with Kale when they were trying to save the ship, the escape pods weren't going to make it out from the attack. The collectors fired on 2 of the first dummy units and lanced the CIC with XO Presley who was stuck by a piece of debris. The commander ordered for the Normandy to maintain and head straight for the surface, she jumped into the engine compartment and began to disengage the secondary fusion drive with Kale, who then ejected it.

The explosion tore the stern section of the Normandy and sent the Collectors staggering back, but they had made it, the Normandy had survived. But only just, their landing came hard as it ripped the belly apart, and the engines had died.

Once on the ground, they organised this search as soon as possible, and from here on out, there was little chance of knowing if Kale and Shepard survived.

Tali walked on the ice with Liara and Tanya, they searched an entire plateau for a signal for Kale's beacon, Tali wasn't going to give up on her older guardian brother, he had spent much of his life living and caring for her. She would be heartbroken to know he had died protecting her to the end.

As she pondered her thoughts, she stepped forwards, the ice broke underneath her feet and she pulled Tanya and Liara down with her. They slid across the frozen floors and into a tunnel, but there was something different about this place, it was metal.

They landed on the end where a large circular room was, they noticed that it had light.  
"Tanya, where are we?" Tali asked.

"I have no idea; this isn't a natural formation, that's for sure." She replied.

"What's that light over there?" Liara said pointing to a slightly ajar door.

They opened the doorway and found that there was a bright light, a small holographic pedestal with a holo figure standing on it. Tanya released her closed neural network and accessed the surrounding area; she found it, a spark.

"John I need you."

(This arc was 711 words, oh BTW who else is going for the Halo Anniversary Edition? I just pre-ordered mine yesterday, as a long standing fan of the game since 2001 when it came out only a couple days after my birthday! And also I can't wait for Halo 4! This is going to be a few more years of life and gaming till the end and I just hope that everyone else is as thrilled as me.)

XXXXX

2591- Elysium

Adrian Shepard ran down through the streets and scanned the empty roads, there was not a soul insight of the bunker, the pirates had been reported to have landed on the outskirts, but that was soon to change, if they wanted to control the city they'd have to take it, and the space port. But the marauders weren't going to be an easy push over, generations of skills and training had been passed on to the next, and this gave them an edge, the tactics employed by these pirates were no better than the loyalist covenant of the past.

He watched as the streets began to illuminate, there was a low hum, he chimed into hic com.  
"Luke can you see anything from up there?"

The reply was quick.  
"Three columns all heading through to your position, I mark 15 per each, there's 1 armoured vehicle and about 5 krogans in the mix, I don't know if we can take them."

"Keep monitoring, I'll get Chris on the Fox." He said.

"Okay, but make sure not to miss, those krogan don't make 2 mistakes on the same thing." He advised.

"Duly noted. Chris, fox at my position, 200 yards north east, mark on my signal."

"Roger that, fox has position marked, fire on your orders." He answered.

"Mark." He ordered.

The thud of a 360mm artillery gun went off in the distance and it took moments before it made its impact, the shell collided with the ground at the designated site, the column only took notice when they were hit by the explosion. The ground shook as the enemy advance was suddenly pulverised into gore, their flesh and bloody spraying the street.

"Okay good, I see 4 still moving, orders?"

"Execute."

"Executing." He replied.

The sharp yet subtle crack of the SR-Apex 150 was quick, and all four targets dropped to the ground in moments. The peace and quiet returned, if only just briefly, as their attack was responded to.

"Um, we've got incoming, a lot of incoming…" Tino called.

"Where?" Adrian asked.

"West, far west, they've got artillery." He reported.

No sooner as he finished, a thunderous explosion sounded, the building next to Luke's position exploded in a shower of iridium and titanium, the ceramic plates that covered the walls came falling in a hail storm. Luke had cleared his position and Adrian took cover as the deadly shower came overhead.

"Dammit, Chris where's our support?" He asked.

"Not here for another, 5 minutes sir, they're taking fire on the highway." He reported.

XXXXX

Shepard really wished she had another day to do something like this; she braced the wheel as the Warthog FAV ran down the roads, the newer Full Armoured Vehicle variant was an impressive new addition to the UCAF military, and of course it did live up to its name. Three MA rounds slammed into the kinetic barriers, the gunner returned fire at the source of fire. They were still off from the position under threat; they had to bank around the area of the battle to reach the enemy artillery that the marines had reported.

She watched as gunships screamed overhead, the 81st shock troopers were living up to their names as marauders, even if it had been years since any major wars, the UCAF still had proven that their training programs still worked highly effectively. Shepard pulled herself from the side to take a shot at a sniper in a window overlooking the highway.

"Sargent, how long until we arrive at the choke point?" She asked over the coms.

"No can do commander, we just got orders to move elsewhere, at the main Orbital Elevator. An ONI spook has requested any and all assistance to do an immediate run, the elevator is under attack, don't worry air support will deal with the artillery." The Sargent replied.

Shepard felt a bit bad for allowing the marines who had requested assistance to be left with someone else, but orders were clear. ONI had rules above the UCAF military, and she had no other choice except to listen and do it, especially since the threat was at the orbital elevator. She braced and said. "Confirmed Sargent, who's the spook?"

"No idea, but she's from the Cerberus division, can't say who they are, but they have command over us." The Sargent replied.

The assault convoy changed course and headed deeper into the heart of the city, the battle above the world intensified.

XXXXX

Harek was sceptical about this idea of attacking Elysium, but with things going this well he was now confident that his warriors would enjoy slaughtering the UCAF in battle, but so far his report had shown little or no major kills, but still the troops were rolling the marauders back block by block. He watched the reports from the orbital elevator flood in, the first boarding parties had made their arrival, the control of the elevator would be critical in taking the planet.

XXXXX

Miranda fired her M7, the SMG ripped into the squad of enemy Vorcha. The fleshy troops fell in the droves as the ultra-accelerated rounds punched into them. She cooled her SMG and then took a moment of reprieve as the UCAF marauders continued to fire at the enemy waves, 15 minutes had passed since the first boarding parties from the pirates. Now they were being swamped by either Vorcha or mechs, the cheap droids went down quickly, but still expended ammunition.

Half the unit she had with her was down to 60% on heat clips, the small expendable clips held heat sink encased bullets which worked as solid slugs, the weight of each one was enough to tear a hole in YMIR mech, but these clips could easily be used up in heavy fights, and marauders didn't have enough to deal with the sheer volumes like Crusader, Vindicators, or Liberators.

She looked up as another squad of pirates ran in through the airlocks, she fired at the lead members and then turned on one who had a flame thrower strapped to his back, the pirate screamed for a few seconds desperately trying to remove the death trap, but by the time he managed to try for the straps the whole pack ignited, the squad was engulfed in a fireball moments later.

The Sargent yelled over to Miranda. "Ma'am we can't hold this position much longer, you have priority, where do you need to go?" He asked.

Miranda flicked over the plans in case of this happening, most were half-baked ideas, but she decided upon what was important to her. "We need to get to a more defensible area, we won't much long on ammo, I'd suggest heading to the hangar." She replied.

The Sargent thought it over quickly, she was right, and he knew that if they remained they'd be overrun by the pirates in a few hours; the hangar had defensible turrets and ammo dispensers in the security booths. He nodded and said. "Squad cover retreat, fall back 4X2."

The squad did as it was ordered, a covering fire retreat back to the hangar and then holding the ground. Hopefully assistance would have arrived by then, the marauders didn't need any more directions, and they quickly and professionally dropped back with their officer and ONI spook. The pirates didn't relent though, breaking by they attempted to rush as the marines fell away from their position. Miranda sent a pulse blast at them and flung or blew apart the attack in moments.

After falling back into a corridor they sealed the doors and then made their way to the hangar, Miranda had remembered the manifest, Jon and Oriana were aboard the shuttle out bound in 2 hours, theirs was the only one she could think of that truly mattered at this point. She needed to protect them, no matter what.

XXXXX

The warthogs took another turn as they arrived at Haven's Gate Orbital Elevator, they saw that the control of the heart of the city still remained in the hands of the UCAF; whole platoons were still in the area fighting off krogans and an assortment of pirate forces. Shepard gritted her teeth as she fired from her rifle, the AR kicked back as it blew through the armour of a charging krogan who had been a little over confident.

She watched as the whole battles continued even though the warthogs were there, the krogans were battling against the UCAF marauders, and Helldivers. She could see that one Helldiver had dual AR Carbines, with chainsaw attachments, he knocked back the weapons of a krogan and the proceeded to bayoneting the krogan and then gutting him the most bloodiest fashion possible, viscera and gore filled the air and the soldier continued on his path of death.

She would have lost the contents of her stomach if it wasn't for the fact that she and many other UCAF marines knew of what the Helldivers were like, this was no different from their usual routine, they were experts in hand to hand and CQC combat, they had an excessive amount of lethal CQC weapons with their extremely large arsenal of HE and alternate range of weapons.

Once the warthogs passed the scene they arrived at the lower section of the elevator, there were thousands of people packing it into all kinds of lifts trying to get to either the orbital hangar or the space port on the other side. The UCAF had cleared them a single path to the main military hangar, there they jumped off and headed upwards to the defence of the main orbital rings, the pirates weren't allowed to take the rings no matter what.

"Sargent, how many marines are still up there?" Shepard asked.

"About 600 in total of our compliment on this section of the ring ma'am, we don't have many other marines left after the initial attacks." The Sargent replied reloading his shock rifle.

The elevator chimed as they headed up, they moved as fast as the light rails could take them, Shepard hated elevators, and she hated the Citadel ones even more. She had grown up on the station and she found it so damned boring, even though being the great granddaughter of the legendary SPII Kelly.

Citadel life was simple but ridiculous, the sentiment of trying to find peace with absolutely no proper military and corporations being in control was a death wish waiting to happen, she wouldn't be so surprised if she ended up doing something to save the whole galaxy while the Citadel sat on their arses and acted like nothing happened.

She kicked the thought out of her mind as they arrived at their stop, the doors opened up with 2 combat drones looking at them, the spider drones scanned them and then processed them as proper UCAF military. The drones moved away and then let the doors open to the lobby; the place was in absolute panic. The dying marines were dragged off to make room for the new arrivals. Shepard could see that this wasn't going to be as easy as she had first thought, if this spook was here, she was going to have to wade her way through every firefight between here to there.

She asked. "So, where do we start looking?"

XXXXX

Adrian watched as the marines fell back to Bunker Hill, the fighting in the streets had subsided enough for him and his fellow marines to be pulled from the front lines. The artillery had been dealt with but enemy troops were still rolling into the city from external positions, he needed to get back to the command base.

He just hoped that the Major General could explain what was going on, he knew that he could get the information thanks to the fact that the major was an old family friend, and he was his godfather, made getting into the fight a less pain in the ass. He hopped along through the base and got onto the line. If anything today, Adrian Shepard was going to become a very well-known name on Elysium.

XXXXX

Miranda and the fire squad remained in the hangar with the other marines, they held the port for all those who needed to escape, but the battle in space had yet to relent, she and the marauders couldn't hold positions for any longer than was necessary. But still she held hope for the shuttle that Jon and Oriana were on; they needed to make it to safety and she needed to be there once they did.

She jogged over to the external terminal, she checked in with the reports of the battle, the pirates were being knocked back ever so slowly, but the arrival of the collectors had made the battle a mess. Energy weapons were being fired over the whole place, the UCAF had shield technology, but the collectors had a number of energy wielding ships, which begged to raise the question as to why they were attacking.

She watched as the timer counted down, there was only another half an hour before the new covenant fleet arrived in the system to aid in the battle and the UCAF support fleets were still behind by another 12. She knew that they'd arrive, but she hoped that the collectors didn't get to ground before the fleet could arrive or the whole situation would turn ugly.

XXXXX

Tan Systems…

Vannoch was a beautiful place, a home for those who believed that hard work would yield such results, decades of hard terraforming and natural cultivation had produced a wonderful clean environment for humans to live in, this place was one of the many colonies the UCAF had. Which it is the reason for the colony being handed over to the Quarians, the quarians had been desperate to find a new home or reclaim their old one, but it was nearly impossible to do so, first being their immunity was compromised from exposure, and the second being their lack of military strength to do anything.

It wasn't until the UCAF rescued them from both these factors by granting them the colony within Tan and also immunising their whole race to survive against all kinds of natural factors. This new found acceptance and alliance had been welcomed by the quarian people nearly 50 years ago and it has held strong since then. It was a blessing to be with the UCAF, being able to access their vast knowledge and technologies and learn more about the greater universe that they had never seen, including the AIs that they so feared.

All this prosperity was welcomed, but there was an underlying factor, the threats that came with accepting the alliance. Today the day was a warm sunny morning with clouds of smoke and ash, the grounds no longer as fertile as it had been earlier, due to the attack being launched on the colony. The UCAF forces held back the initial assault, but the enemy still broke a hole large enough for the main forces to attack the main city.

In Rayya the area was pocketed with smoke and fires, the pirates had sieged the city for the past 3 hours, and were now attempting to break into the defences with ground forces. In the city itself, over 4 million tried to hold desperately on the belief that the UCAF would be able to reach them soon, but with the actual defences in the city, the chances that the pirates would successfully break into the defences were minimal.

But that did not perturb the fact that they were still being attacked. At the main UCAF garrison in the city, SPV Damien watched from his position, he put up his sniper and took aim as he scanned for further enemy troops, there was movement but not enough for him to start taking any risks. He hoped that the UCAF would have been able to send a counter fleet as soon as possible, but with the amount of combat that was already present in the system, he assumed that they were already here.

He watched the UCAF marines prepare for their stand against the pirates, hundreds of young men armed with whatever they had on them, snipers, gauss guns and plasma lances just to name a few of the things the UCAF had stored in its marine arsenal. The young marines were all nervous, and many hadn't expected this kind of thing to ever occur, conflict was one thing, but this was an all-out war against the UCAF and its colonies.

He could see that the marines hadn't been trained to deal with such things, not many in any case, but still they were nervous from being in the open with their weapons and whatever basic combat training was granted to the UCAF standard PDF. Officers moved through ranks and ensured that none broke rank and file, they all tried to remain passive or at least calm.

And then it happened, the first walls were blown inwards by a kinetic round from an assault battery, probably a Batarian assault platform, it was nothing as powerful as a covenant Scarab but still effective. Damien took aim as the marines began to open fire; the first waves of pirates were easily the vorcha. They were simple meat shields and cannon fodder usually associated with being the first to get into a fight.

Damien didn't waste his ammo, the UCAF PDF could handle them quickly, he watched as the others soon began to follow, a dozen squads of assorted armoured pirates in rough squads then burst in with mechs and an YMIR. He decided to go after the YMIR; they were much easier to deal with, loading in a plasma shell. He took aim. His Apex rifle was modified to be used for extreme range combat, the plasma shell that he had loaded was tipped with a ionic charger, the tip would heat up with a plasma casing which added a further amount of firepower to the deadly projectile, once it would make contact with a target the ion tip would be followed up by the rest of the plasma shell, and then it would detonate as it penetrates, creating a maximum impact upon set target.

The round penetrated the shields and entered through the thick iridium plating and then exited from there to the bottom of the power pack, but the shot was moving at over 0.85% the speed of light so all that anyone could have seen a flash of light before the whole head of the mech melt open and then explode. The explosion sent the pirate squads to ground or sent deadly pieces of shrapnel and fire over their own troops; he smiled as the pirates began to scatter in fear.

The covenant armies of the past knew better than to be consumed by such fears, especially with elites in command of their forces. He loaded another round and HE and prepared to fire from another position, these pirates weren't going into the city without a fight. The UCAF marines would give them hell for this and there wasn't going to be one way or another that the UCAF would ever give up.

He didn't realise that there were 5 collector ships in orbit, all planning to harvest what they needed.

XXXXX

Noveria-Peak15

Why, why was it so cold? He couldn't feel his body anymore, the fridge that he was stuck in made it impossible to mutate or accelerate change. He was being restricted by the damned scientists of this facility. Saren, that bastard had this all planned out, Joseph wouldn't let him get away with this, not in a million years, if it could possibly take him that long. The reapers, all the past wars, the return of the ancients and the Precursors, he had to stop them.

But with his body in this chamber he could only watch the passage of time and pain, but he knew something that these fools didn't, he still had his equipment strapped into his body. He just needed to find the switch…

As the lab workers continued their observation of the infected Spartan, flood general, they couldn't help but be amazed at how fast the creature could work around the defences of the lab containment unit, even though being frozen. But they had one little problem, an oversight, a major one at that, once a Spartan, always a Spartan.

Alarms started blaring over the whole lab, the scientist looked at the containment unit and realised that the flood general no longer present. The head observer could only say. "What the hell?" He was tapped on the shoulder. He turned to meet a 15inch serrated talon through his face. The rest of the science team that was observing the now free specimen could only scream in panic as the 7'5 killing machine tore into them without pause.

Alarms over the whole complex rang as the auto-sealing systems came active; the labs were being locked down. Joseph didn't need to care, he still had it. A sharp whine and his fusion jump pack was charged, it was a crude slip-space device used for those in the field, he had that to thank for his saves on Noveria all those years before and on the Eta halo. Death was yet to take Joseph Black-06, he was still alive.

XXXXX

Shepard arrived at the secondary ring near the hangar, the constant skirmishes with the pirates had finally ended, and now they could help out with the hangar and finally get to this mystery operative of the UCAF and figure out what the hell was going on. Shepard loaded her AR and BR and prepared to exit the corridor with her squad, they were almost alright. A few took a few hits on the way in.

She opened the doors and allowed them to enter, she signalled ahead. "Eternity!" She yelled.

"Grace!" A voice replied.

She knew that they were cleared, she moved from cover and was greeted by a dozen marines with ARs and Carbines, and they even had an Arc lance in place at the entrance. The youngest marine saluted to them and said. "Welcome to the fight commander Shepard."

"Good to be here." She returned the salute.

"If you're looking for the spook, she's in the lower hangar, she trying to prepare the shuttles for departure right now." The marine explained.

"Thanks." She said and took off down the corridor with her squad.

They passed through the main lobby and found the directions to the lower hangar, on arrival they found that the hangar was filled with people, there were families lined up to enter into shuttles, it seemed that they were trying to get as many people off the station as soon as possible. She headed on through to a guard who was trying to sort things out, his Nova tool sweeping over those who were priority above others. He looked to her as she approached.

"Ma'am what is it?" He asked.

"I need to know about a certain ONI spook that is here, where can I find her?" She asked.

"She's at the hangar control, just head straight down here then take a left at the end and then there's a lift with some stairs that head to the hangar controls, you'll find that she's got about a dozen others helping her sort through things." He replied.

"Thanks." Shepard said before following the directions.

She walked down the corridor of scared people, they all looked as though they could do with something better and they all had their eyes sweeping over the hangar, some looking at her while others stared at the battle outside. Anyone could tell that the sheer amount of fear coming from these people was quite well placed. The covenant war was still a fresh wound, and 40+ years hadn't exactly washed away.

She arrived at the control room, there she found a dozen or so controllers trying to get info through to command, but with so many things happening, the command and communication personnel were frantic to establish communications with HIGH COM or the Admirals. She watched the rows jumble around with interfaces and terminals; they needed an all clear to send off the shuttles and ships to head into slip-space.

She looked on to see that there was one person out of all of them that was out of place, a woman in a MKV combat skin, advanced light weight plating and vacuum protection. The suit was glossy black with rebreather attachments and ionic repulse units attached. The helmet was placed to the side, the woman's hair breezed around her in neat locks.

Shepard approached the woman who looked at her. "I assume that you're our ONI spook?"

The woman threw a glance in her direction, when Shepard locked eyes upon her; she was surprised to see how piercing her eyes were. It took a moment before she replied. "I am Miranda Lawson, ONI SEC: III, Cerberus division 1. I assume that you're my escort?"

"Yes, I was told that you needed assistance and you called in available Special Forces or those of non-PDF." Shepard replied.

"You can hold that military attitude out of this fight, and no need to introduce yourself Commander Shepard; I was briefed on your arrival here. Your transfer to the next ship has just been cancelled permanently; a particle blast ripped a hole in the bow only 30 minutes ago. You're now on civilian assistance with me, we have an objective to complete, one very personal to myself of course." She stated.

Shepard shouldn't have been so surprised to hear that this ONI spook knew of her existence before she knew the spook. This whole thing was revolving around something to do with her and she needed to help. Shepard honestly had no love for the ONI; they had way too many shady historical records, all with their assassination attempts and kills. It's a part of their history she didn't like much.

"What might this civilian mission involve?" Shepard asked.

Miranda brought up the indications of the objectives, the image of the hangar and the surrounding ring of what had to be accomplished. "The objectives are rather simple, but they won't be easy. Pirates have taken control of the outer docking rings and have begun to push into the orbital rings, the docks we can't take back unless with more forces. But reinforcements won't be here for another 5 hours and these shuttles need to get going as soon as possible. The space battle is being fought by the fleet, away from here, so there's little chance from being attacked, as well as the fact that the auto defences are still running. We just need to make sure that the pirates don't reach the command centre." She finished.

"Where are we to be defending?" Shepard asked.

"At three locations, the lower bays are packed with vehicles and drivers, don't spend too much time with them, the levels outside have 5 main junctions connected to the docks, so we need to be spread over the whole ring." She directed to the points on the map.

Shepard knew that this fight wasn't going to be easy, and of course there was something missing. "What about the final positions?"

"They're in space, on the outer hull of the rings, you'll only go up there once I've gotten the MS teams prepared, they've got some technical issues, don't worry though, as long as the pirates don't know about that they'll avoid going into space." She reassured her.

"Right, well then, we better get going. Are there any other items of interest that I should know about?" Shepard asked as she picked through her Nova tool.

"Yes, the marines have teams of ammo loaders, they'll come around and drop off some things should you need them, and also be careful we have only so much ammunition to hold them back. And look out for fuel tanks and conduits; should someone strike one, we're all going to be free flying in the air." Miranda warned picking up her SMG and shotgun.

She walked down the stairs and headed off; Shepard picked up her own things and looked over at her squad. The marauders did a quick overview of their inventory before they nodded to go into battle. "Ma'am, ready when you are." The sergeant stated.

"Seeing as we have the main corridors to deal with, get the first teams 4x2 I'll be going on my own, we'll regroup every so often should there be attacks from all directions." Shepard said.

"Yes commander." The sergeant said.

Splitting into their respective groups they headed off, Shepard looked out into the view of space, she wondered what was going to happen, so many of the troops were fighting, the war with these pirates were too coincidental and the damned collectors, just sitting there. She knew something was wrong, but what could she do now, she had a war to fight. Answers would come later; the people needed her to save them all.

XXXXX

(Our End is Neigh!)

Okay, so this is what I should have given you about Jack's story and the rise of this AU Illusive Man…

SEC: III

Recon Dispatch- _UCAF Ode of Fate_

Eta Halo- Debris Field sector 20-1-23

In the now vaporised area where the once powerful super weapon of the forerunners once existed, the UCAF recon frigate scoured the area for anything after the blast. But unfortunately in the use of Nova Bombs, the UCAF had many oversights of using such weapons, the explosive force being one as it tended to absolutely rip everything into a fiery oblivion. The UCAF and the rest of the galaxy assumed that everything was dead and that there was little or absolutely no chance that anything could have possibly survived the blast.

However the ONI SEC: III had no such assumptions, the flood and many things can survive blasts like this, and of course the remains of a certain fleet of old covenant loyalists in the past war was a very good example as it once revealed the locations of certain places to the turians during the first contact war, the UCAF wasn't going to truly risk something like this, especially if there was a chance that it could be used on humanity later.

ONI swept the region for the last time, they were sure that there was something here, a beacon, from a UCAF transponder and a node. The ONI made sure that they didn't miss this, especially after the geth and the unknown ship attacked while they were trying to destroy the halo. The Fate reached its target, a small section of ship, probably a fragment from the UCAF _Aspire_. The ship managed to get the small fragment into their sights and then caught it with a tractor field.

Reeling the hull piece aboard the teams waited and scanned the piece for infection, the last thing they needed was the flood to be loose on the ship. They sterilised the piece and began to work around it, lifting a layer off they found their beacon. It was a HEV, still intact, but the thrusters had been shot and the pod itself looked cooked. It must have dropped out when the ship was destroyed or caught in the blast.

Cutting into the titanium/iridium plating, the teams found what they were looking for. The person inside was in auto-self-acclimation-preservation systems, ASAPs, the life preservers for those unfortunate enough to get stuck in deep space with only a beacon with them. It seemed as though the major had been unfortunate enough to have been caught in the process of doing so.

One of those present in the hangar was a short dark haired man with a grey and gun metal blue suit. His eyes were very acute, and his sights were sharp, but aging had not been pleasant for him, especially since his departure from HIGH COM on earth and his now novice level of command in the UCAF, thanks to his records with the UNSC. Lieutenant Ackerman watched with an easy gaze at the HEV, if the beacon was right, they had just found their man.

A marine ran up to him. "Sir, we have the data recorder, should we go over the contents?"

"Yes, and send in a report to SEC: III, I'm sure they'll appreciate the news." He jibbed.

He looked at the pod, this was the start of his next project, one that would allow him to be remembered as the man who saved humanity and kept humanity safe from all things…

"Welcome back, Major Jack."

XXXXX

Who is that marine? Take a guess…


End file.
